Nearly two hours into an ambitious critique of colonialism that runs almost twice as long, a pivotal scene brings “I Only Rest in the Storm” into sharp focus. The protagonist, a Portuguese engineer on assignment in Guinea Bissau, encounters a sex worker. He fails to get excited and in an attempt to smooth things over tries to initiate conversation with her about her life. She’s rightfully indignant as he’s wasting her time and tells him that what disgusts her most are good men, those who act as if they care when in fact they just want to feel good about themselves.
This scene encapsulates many of the topics on the mind of Portuguese director Pedro Pinho — namely, the effects of colonization on contemporary Africa and how attempts at modernization might be a hindrance rather than a way forward. The film follows Sergio (Sérgio Coragem), who’s sent to Guinea Bissau in West Africa to investigate whether a road project between the desert and the forest is viable. There he meets many different people, both for and against the project. Some see it as a way to modernize and generate jobs in this developing country, while others see it as an end to their way of life as an agrarian economy.
Segio tries to make connections with the locals he meets. However, most are suspicious of him and his motives. There are those who consider him as a nuisance to be rid of and others who see him as an attractive shiny object to try and influence. Perhaps they can profit from him or further their own goals. In fact, the aforementioned sex worker was probably most accurate: However noble his intentions, Sergio seems passive and does not know where his priorities should be — a stand-in for the incompetent do-gooders from former colonizing nations who run NGOs trying to better lives in nations they don’t understand.
There are several stories in “I Only Rest in the Storm,” ranging from funny to overly dramatic, straightforward to full of metaphors, as the film follows Sergio through Guinea Bissau. Each of them plays like a standalone vignette that could make a short film, and as with a short film program made up of multiple stories, some are stronger than others. Though the feature’s demanding length manages to show how colonization kept evolving throughout history, it also tests the audience’s patience. At times, Pinho includes dry scenes where tangential characters address the camera with historical facts. To his credit, the director never comes up with easy answers, but rather makes the audience confront their prejudices. “I Only Rest in the Storm” has vast ambitions but sometimes gets overwhelmed by all the thematic topics it wants to cover.
Apart from Sergio, only two other characters recur throughout, both of whom hold a romantic interest for him. The audience is first introduced to Diara, a charismatic bar owner (played by Cleo Diára, who won an acting award for her performance at Cannes). In a long scene that could be taken from a 1970s thriller, Sergio meets Diara as she’s trying to escape a man following her through a busy market. She uses Sergio as a decoy, and he’s immediately smitten with this stranger in the blond wig. The other character is Guilherme, or Gui (Jonathan Guilherme), a femme nonbinary Brazilian expat who traveled to Africa to develop a deeper connection with their ancestry. They become the person who challenges Sergio’s motives in coming to Guinea Bissau as a European from a former colonizing country.
Coragem has a pleasant screen presence, yet the character is consistently the least interesting person in whatever situation he’s put in. Intentionally, he serves as the audience surrogate, but he is so passive that questions arise about why we should care about his plight at all. No wonder Diára and Guilherme fare better, as their characters are more engaging. They take action, repeatedly confronting Sergio. Even though he seems enamored with both of them, he takes no action to further a relationship with either, waiting for them to take the initiative. Segio’s ineptitude stands in for all do-gooders who never take a firm stand and would rather talk than make change — a tough assignment for the actor, but one which fits in thematically with the rest of the film.
“I Only Rest in the Storm” is the kind of film that thrives in a rarefied cinematic environment like Cannes, offering so many talking points that audiences exit the film wanting to argue about it with each other. It provokes, entertains and annoys in equal measure and thus will inspire admirers and detractors alike. One hopes it travels beyond film festivals and into local cinemas around the world, especially in the Global South, where “I Only Rest in the Storm” would most likely bring about the most passionate conversations, from people reminiscent of its characters.
