We, People of the Islands
Nós, Povo das Ilhas
- Hot Docs 2025 — Blue Ice Docs Award
Synopsis
Elson Santos came across an old photograph of Cape Verdean guerrillas in Cuba, and could find no one able to explain it to him. The film that grew out of it recovers a near-forgotten chapter of the independence struggle: thirty-one young Cape Verdeans — thirty men and one woman — worn down by hunger, who left the islands in secret for military training in Cuba, preparing an invasion of their own country. Built on the testimony of the fighters who are still alive, the documentary hands a piece of national history back to the people who were sent to make it.