Sun 20 Dec 2020 06.00 EST
In the wake of the Angolan civil war, Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) has spent 17 years in exile in New York, working triple shifts as a cab driver while petitioning to be reunited with wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson, soon to appear in Matt Reevesâs
The Batman). Their reunion should be a cause for celebration, but the reality is more complicated, as Walter struggles to untether himself emotionally from Linda (Nana Mensah), a nurse heâs been having a relationship with in his wifeâs absence.
There are three sides to every story in Ekwa Msangiâs vivid and carefully observed feature debut, and so she cleverly splits the film into thirds, replaying the action but changing the vantage point with each chapter. This structural device draws attention to the ways the characters continually misunderstand each other, introducing personal stakes to an otherwise familiar portrayal of the immigrant experience. The strict
Ekwa Msangi s Farewell Amor is an immigrant drama about coming to terms with a family member who s now a stranger
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Farewell Amor, review: a family drama full of insight and charm
The i 12/17/2020 Jenn Selby © Provided by The i Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, left, and and Jayme Lawson appear in a scene from Farewell Amor (Photo: IFC Films via AP)
Ekwa Msangi’s debut feature is a delicately observed family drama which benefits from its subtle and quietly humorous approach.
Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is a taxi driver in Brooklyn. He emigrated to the US 17 years before, from war-torn Angola, and is very comfortable in his new life. However, when he is joined by his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and teenage daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), his world is thrown off its axis.
Directed by Ekwa Msangi
INSPIRED by the experiences of her own aunt and uncle, Ekwa Msangi´s debut feature is a striking and moving study of immigrants in the US and the sacrifices they make to ensure a better life for their family and the fallout when their old and new lives collide.
The film follows Angolan immigrant Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) as he is reunited with his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (impressive newcomer Jayme Lawson) at a US airport after being apart for 17 years.
But as he shares a one-bedroom New York apartment with them, the realisation soon dawns on him that they are all complete strangers.
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Farewell Amor is streaming on Mubi from 18 December 2020.
Ekwa Msangiâs immigrant drama Farewell Amor opens with a scene of an airport reunion shot at a short distance, the figures almost blankly silhouetted against the glass walls. The film will follow the subsequent events from the perspective of all three characters in this awkward vignette. Thereâs Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), the Brooklyn-based taxi driver who left his family behind in Angola when he emigrated to the US 17 years earlier, after the outbreak of civil war. He is tentatively embracing his wife Esther (Zainab Jah), who subsequently fled to Tanzania with their baby daughter, and found solace in her church during their estrangement. Daughter Sylvia (newcomer Jayme Lawson), now a sullen if elegant teenager, hovers behind her mother.
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