The Hero (World Dramatic Competition) Directed by: Zeze Gamboa

Winner of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival’s “World Dramatic Grand Jury Prize,” the Angolan film “The Hero” traveled to the United States to show us a war-torn country, and to create sympathy within its audience for the struggles of the poor, just barely surviving in the country. “The Hero” is a film most noted for communicating cinematically the economic conditions of the country of Angola and its people, its wonderful symbolism, but lacks a bit in story with the intertwining lives of Vitorio, his son Manu, and Manu‘s teacher Joana.

Firstly, the story of “The Hero” begins in Angola, a country that not many people are aware just finished up a civil war in April 2002. Just like the devastation that the United States felt when its own civil conflict ended in 1865, Angola is in very nearly the same boat--but poorer. The war sergeant, Vitorio, is now on his way home--not really wanting to go home, as he has lost a leg to a land mine during the war, and loses his prosthetic on the journey, while also being distracted on the side by a prostitute he falls in love with. His son, Manu, who he has not seen since birth, is a liar and a thief, living with his grandmother, but caring very little about anyone else around him except for his schoolteacher, Joana, and the idea that his father may one day return home. Each of the stories of these three main characters is told simultaneously and intertwine, leading to a rather unsettling conclusion.

The first thing that can be said for “The Hero” is that it is a true testament to the power of film and how it can communicate to audiences in different countries the dire economic conditions of life from its origins. Like so many of the other World Dramatic competitors, “Live-In Maid” and “Palmero Hollywood” in particular, “The Hero” allows its camera to weave in and out of the city streets, particularly at night, when the dark niches are populated by starving animals and people alike, many of them thieves ready to take advantage of the next person who turns the corner. A big part of the film is a television station which only broadcasts messages of desperation from family members who lost loved ones in the war, in hopes that their family members and friends may still be alive and turn themselves in after seeing a plea on television. The line to be broadcast stretches almost infinitely, and one is hit hard with the realization of the devastation and loss of life facing Angola, and how much work is ahead of them to rebuild.

The greatest amount of symbolism in “The Hero” that audiences should definitely be on the lookout for is derived from Vitorio’s lost prosthetic leg, which is later found by Manu and kept as a telescope--Manu being able to peak out the knee joint into the moon and wish for his father’s return. Out of all the items Manu steals and sells to keep himself alive, this seemingly useless prosthetic is the one thing he keeps, even without the knowledge that it belongs to his father. The amount of what would seemingly be undue attention to this plastic leg is actually not useless at all. The director’s focus on the leg is to use the prosthetic as a device--a symbol--of hope for a better life and recuperation for the country. Not only does Manu hold onto it in hope for his father’s return, but Vitorio is constantly searching for the leg throughout the duration of the film, confident in the knowledge that if he finds it, his crippling disability will be cured. The same would be true for Angola, the film is saying, if they could only find this metaphorical prosthetic leg to stand on.

While “The Hero” does benefit from being able to show the masterful ability of film to communicate the wrongs of the world effectively to audiences and make them feel compelled to help, and even though its “symbolic leg” is brilliant, “The Hero” is still very much a slow-pced film with intertwining story lines that, frankly, shouldn’t intertwine. The stories of Manu an Vitorio are fine, considering they are a father and son constantly seeking each other, and therefore, expressing metaphorically the struggles of Angola. However, a storyline exists with Manu‘s middle-class teacher, Joana. While it‘s effective to show “the other half“ of the society, and it‘s nice to see someone well-off concerned for the welfare of those below her, Joana‘s story is relatively inconsequential within the big scheme of the entire film. The screenwriters try to justify her existence by having her be the love interest of a man in power who eventually allows Vitorio to be broadcast across the nation for someone to return his prosthetic leg, but the attention dedicated to detailing her relationship with that of her love-interest is nearly irrelevant and uninteresting to watch. The film would have stood just as well without her, and could have easily found another way to incorporate a method for Vitorio to get his story about his prosthetic limb broadcast to the country.

While “The Hero“ is an excellently put together film and really makes its audiences feel a deep sympathy for the plight of Angolans, and utilizes the technique of symbolism, it overall probably shouldn‘t have won the World Dramatic Jury Prize. It was put together well, and the story was moderately interesting, but in the end, the story line of Joana merely detracts from the story at large, and her existence is not vitally important to the rendering of the story. If anything, under-riding this dismal story about the slums of Angola is a dim spot of hope on the horizon, signaling a better life for its people…whenever that may be.