BODY GAMES # 151

13:00, Friday 19th June, Cinema 3

Director/Anthropologist: Richard Pakleppa, Matthias Röhrig Assunçâo, Cinézio Peçanha, Christine Dettmann
Year of Release: 2014
Duration: 87 mins
Country of Production: South Africa/UK/Brazil
Location: Angola/Brazil
Ethnic Group: Nyaneka-Humbi, Brazilians (Cariocans and Bahians)
Language: Portuguese, Nyaneka with Portuguese or English subtitles

The film follows master Cobra Mansa and his friends in the search for the African roots of the Brazilian martial art Capoeira. A powerful myth links Capoeira to a legendary Angolan game called Engolo – the Zebra dance. The film documents, for the first time, Engolo as well as other combat games, dances and music from the Nyaneka-Humbi people in Southern Angola. The exchange between Capoeira and Engolo in Angolan villages and the insights from the streets of Rio and Bahia illuminate the affinities and differences between combat games and musical bows played on both sides of the Atlantic.

Return to the 2015 film programme