How can we atone for the historical sins inherited from our ancestors during the colonial period? Through Rosinha and Other Wild Animals (Marta Pessoa, 2023), director Pessoa attempts to re—explore the issue of colonial racism committed by the Portuguese, but this time from a different perspective—the perspective of a white person, who becomes the main antagonist in the film’s narrative.
Despite the title’s use of the phrase wild animals, the film seems to question the reasoning behind the phrase’s use—or decision to use it. Rosinha and her people, the black Portuguese Guinean people who were treated inhumanely, like animals, by the colonial power. At the 1934 Portuguese Colonial Exhibition, they were displayed as symbols of exoticism and subordination. Director Pessoa invites the audience to reflect on how his ancestors and the Portuguese nation portrayed black people, especially women, who have historically been reduced to objects of exoticism.
The use of visual archives and footage from the colonial period becomes a powerful tool to bring back images of the past. As in many contemporary documentaries, which often do not rely solely on facts and information, this film emphasizes memory as an important instrument in understanding reproduced history. Through a well-organized archive, the film makes the audience not only reflect, but also ask: how much of the historical narrative has been filtered through the lens of colonialism?
Through the historical footage featured, the audience is invited to feel the anguish. The old footage shows how black people were oppressed and discriminated against by white people—making us realize that this bleak past cannot be forgotten. Director Pessoa implicitly invites the people, the Whites, to reflect and question the actions of their ancestors. She criticizes how the colonial view of the past has reduced humans to something that could be exhibited and exploited. Not only does the film offer a critique of structural racism, but it also serves as an introspective call for viewers, especially white ones, to acknowledge and confront this history more consciously.
As a symbolic form of this call for reflection, at the end of the film, Director Pessoa presents a meaningful scene: a white person dresses a black person in traditional Minhotas clothing. This scene can be seen as a symbol of acceptance, but also as a sharp insinuation that this is what white people should have done long ago—recognizing and accepting the presence and humanity of black people, instead of making them objects of subordination. The scene invites the audience to reflect on the moral responsibility of reconstructing historical narratives.
Rosinha and Other Wild Animals (2023) gives us the opportunity to not only reflect, but also question the extent to which we, as part of a global society, have learned from the dark history bequeathed to us. (FadliAwan) (Ed. Vanis/Trans. Naufal Shabri)
Film Details
Rosinha and Other Wild Animals (Rosinha e Outros Bichos do Mato)
Marta Pessoa | 101 Min | 2023 | Portugal
In Competition for International Feature-Length
Festival Film Dokumenter 2024
Screening Schedule
Nov. 2 | 19:00 WIB | IFI-LIP
