Farewell Amor

This was a wonderful, nuanced performance by the three principal actors in this drama. We follow their trajectory and adaptation as they arrive and settle in New York. Mother and daughter have been apart from their husband/father for 17 years as he worked in NYC. They had fled their homeland in Angola for Dars es Salaam in Tanzania. They try to adjust to the enormous differences that have developed over this long time period. This could easily have evolved into an over-extended melodrama - but instead we witness characters interacting and overcoming each other's short-comings.

"Farewell Amor" is a beautiful film that tells the same story from three different perspectives: the father, the daughter, and the mother. Director and writer Ekwa Msangi unravels the story of an African family separated and reunited after 17 years. Time changes and so do the behavior, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of each character, how to live as a family after 17 years of separation due to Civil War in Angola? Mr. Msangi is not concerned in giving us the answer. There is a beautiful passage that uses dance as a metaphor for this situation: "When we met, we didn't know if we would live to see the next day; We didn't know who was a comrade, who was an informant, who was there for the right... so we danced... When I moved, you follow, When you hesitate, I slow down Because we could feel each other..." The only issue with this movie is the slow pace but if you can get through the first hour then you will get hooked on the plot.

The story is told through three different perspectives, and each adds more depth to the difficult life of the immigrant family. I didn't think I would enjoy this at all, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

This film is really well made. The interactions feel real. The acting is incredible. The story is unique compared to other low-key struggling-to-survive-in-the-big-city films-and it's really a lot more about the difficult sacrifices the characters had to make prior to the start of the film. It pulls you in quickly and keeps you entertained. I'm not much of a reviewer, but I encourage anyone reading this to watch this film. It's definitely one of my cinematic highlights of 2020. I'm not sure how representative it is of new immigrant refugee families in the USA-it's perhaps a bit too optimistic in its message-but in these dark times, sometimes that's what the audience wants.