Alert: I ONLY REST IN THE STORM is having its North American premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF) at Lincoln Center. It screens on Sunday, October 5, at 6 p.m. and Monday, October 6, at 4:30 p.m. at Film at Lincoln Center with Q&As with Pinho and lead actress, Cleo Diára, who won Best Actress at Cannes Un Certain Regard. The fest runs September 26 to October 13.
Potential Audiences should consider I ONLY REST IN THE STORM an enigmatic, cinematic marvel with layers of meanings waiting to be discovered, layers of symbols to be decipherd. Like a cosmic onion, layers need to be peeled away to reveal the soul of the film. For this writer, reviewer to write any more would only result in spoilers. But … I couldn’t resist some HINTS. Nevertheless, some of the HINTS might be spoilers as this reviewer tries to give the WORD follower a leg up with a film wrapped in a 217-minuts cocoon of fascinating metaphors and symbolism and so forth … and so on.
HINT: Charming, well-meaning environmental engineer Sergio (Sérgio Coragem) travels to Guinea-Bissau from Lisbon to scope out the possibility of his European company constructing a road that will connect the urban city areas to rural villages. The strategy calls for him to meet local natives but the strategy morphs into an adventure. He makes friends and lovers, and those with whom he schmoozes either embrace the idea of the road or abhor it, depending, of course, on how it effects their lives – or how they imagine it effects their lives.
Because of soulful interactions literal and figurative, he becomes confused about his place in this world since, of course, he is in Guinea-Bissau on a business mission. More than just kicking back in their seats and watching, audiences too should prepare being swept up into the filmic adventures as this reviewer was – because of the magic of Pedro Pinho, the director,
His epic is on several genre levels, such comedic as in funky-funny, funky-bemusing, funky-dark, funky-weird, inexplicable, inexplicably cosmic.The scenes of sexual eroticism are exquisitely off-the-charts. I ONLY REST IN THE STORY – which has the look and feel of a documentary – features an outstanding supporting performance by Cleo Diára (who won Best Actress in the Un Certain Regard*** section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) as a local businesswoman and bar owner who suffers no fools.
*** Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section is one of its prestigious categories, dedicated to showcasing films that are original, innovative and push boundaries in cinematic storytelling, aesthetics, or narrative style. It typically features more unconventional films that are experimental or lesser-known, giving emerging filmmakers and unique voices a platform. The films in this section are often from around the world, emphasizing diverse perspectives and non-mainstream approaches to filmmaking.
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 18: Pedro Pinho poses during the “O Riso E A Faca” (I Only Rest In The Storm) photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 18, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)
Director Pedro Pinho, according to this reviewer’s scouring film and cinema grapevines and other repositories of info and gossip, has said the idea for the film grew from his travels in West Africa, especially Guinea Bissau, a tropical country on West Africa’s Atlantic coast that’s known for national parks and wildlife, and Mauritania, which is officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in Northwest Africa. Pinho’s film. He is said to have said that his film emphasizes a “collision” with reality, not a desire to merely represent a place or culture but to sit with what he witnessed regarding inequality, asymmetries, the persistence of colonial dynamics in new forms. Collision? – Hmmm?
In interviews and articles he has spoken about how international cooperation – NGOs, expats, volunteers, foreign aid – is a space that raised unsettling questions about power, complicity and historical continuity of colonial relationships. The title of the film reflects this tension: Even those trying to do good or even to merely observe are also embedded in systems of exploitation and domination.
Symbols, Metaphors: There May Be Spoilers Here
Sérgio played by Sérgio Coragem may symbolize neo-colonial complicity. On one level, he is simply a technician doing his job; on another, he embodies how even “neutral” expertise becomes entangled with power, suggesting how bureaucrats and professionals often become the instruments of larger political and economic forces. Sérgio is less an individual hero or villain than a cinematic vessel for the contradictions of “Western intervention.”
Diára played by Cleo Diára may symbolize resilience, representing the voices most often erased in stories of development: Local women who bear the daily burdens of “progress.” She embodies survival, refusal to be silenced, and the agency of those negotiating systems stacked against them. By awarding her voice and presence such weight, the film makes her symbolic of the endurance of Guinea-Bissau itself — scarred, yet un-exstinguished.
Gui played by Jonathan Guilherme may symbolize youth and possibility – a generation caught between tradition and modernity, between ancestral knowledge and the incursions of global capital. He also might stands as a symbol of uncertainty. Will Guinea-Bissau’s youth be co-opted into these systems of exploitation, or find ways to resist and redefine them?
Last but not least, The Road: Obviously not a character, it may seem to be film’s central symbol, that is, a line imposed upon a landscape, a scar of intrusion. At once a promise of “connectivity” and a reminder of forced extraction. The road links all three human characters’ arcs, symbolizing how infrastructure embodies colonial legacies and ecological violence. What makes Pinho’s film distinctive is that he doesn’t let his characters remain only symbols. Sérgio’s fatigue, Diára’s stubborn vitality, Gui’s uncertainty — these are rendered with enough texture that they feel human, even as they clearly carry metaphorical weight.
Nominated for Cannes Film Festival’s Queer Palm, an independent award established in 2010 to recognize LGBTQIA+ themed films screened across all sections of the festival, celebrating films with queer characters, feminist perspectives, challenging gender norms. It serves as a vital platform for queer visibility and artistic expression within the global film community. The award is given annually to both a feature film and a short film, selected by an independent jury
This reviewer-editor attended a special screening Thursday, October 9, 2025 @ Lincoln Center. One more time: It is having its North American premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF). It screens on Sunday, October 5, at 6 p.m. and Monday, October 6, at 4:30 p.m. at Film at Lincoln Center with Q&As with Pinho and lead actress, Cleo Diára, who won Best Actress at Cannes Un Certain Regard for her performance in the film. The fest runs September 26 to October 13.
the WORD Editor Gregg W. Morris