[body-games-capoeira-and-ancestry--Film-list-image]

2014 / 87 minutes

Directed by
Richard Pakleppa Matthias Röhrig Assunção Christine Dettmann
Anthropologist
Country of production
South Africa United Kingdom Brazil

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.

In the 2015 RAI Film Fest Student
Language and subtitles
Portuguese and Nyaneka with English Subtitles
Region
South America Southern Africa
Country
Brazil
Angola
Keywords
Dance / Theatre / Performance Music / Ethnomusicology Festivals / Carnival