Beijing 2019, Chinese Premiere

Another Day of Life: Beijing 2019

One of two animated features selected for the 2018 Cannes lineup, Another Day of Life is a daringly ambitious dive into the chaos of war, based on the book by the journalist Ryszard “Ricardo” Kapuscinski, one of the world’s most compelling chroniclers of conflict. Intercutting a graphically bold animation style with interviews and archival footage, the visually striking film conveys a rare immediacy as it tells of the outbreak of civil war following Angola’s independence from Portugal in 1975. Kapuscinski is portrayed as a reckless and square jawed Indiana Jones type, who against all advice is intent on driving south into the heart of the bloody conflict to find the isolated rebel leader Farrusco (a legendary figure like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness). His animated trip through corpse-strewn roads conveys an undeniable urgency, while the documentary testimony reminds us that we are watching actual history.