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In 2018, I was in Nigeria for the wedding of a friend. For his bachelor party, we went to a place called Fela’s shrine. I had never heard of Fela but was intrigued by the place’s mystic name and the secrecy surrounding it. The shrine turned out to be a large stage for artists hidden behind one of the houses. Since the whole street was private property, the police weren’t allowed to enter, and people could drink and smoke weed without being disturbed.
I soon discovered that Fela’s shrine had been named after and belonged to Afrobeat Pioneer Fela Kuti, Nigeria’s most iconic and famous musician. Fela invented Afrobeats (a combination of African beats and soul influences from the US) and was an activist and man of the people. He wasn’t afraid to share his political views and got arrested for it tens of times. Fela passed away in 1997, but his word continues to spread through his music and his children (performing at the shrine that night).
My favorite song is Sorrow, Tears, and Blood.
Gabriel and the Mountain tells the real-life story of a Brazilian backpacker who decides to travel the world for a year. His aim is to experience poverty first-hand before starting his Ph.D. in development economics back in Brazil.
When his trip takes a tragic turn, taking Gabriel’s life, his friend Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa decides to make the story into a movie. Although partially an ode to his companion, the director is also critical of Gabriel’s privileged and stubborn attitude.
What makes the film so special is that all of the actors except for the main character and his girlfriend are the actual people Gabriel met during his trip. Having to reenact their encounters with the Brazilian student has a visual impact on them.
You can rent the movie on Amazon Prime and Google Play.
The Bad Girl is a novel by Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, famous for his humouristic and political writing style. Travesuras de la Niña Mala is quite different and perhaps not as strong in the literary sense, but a beautiful love tale nonetheless.
During his childhood, Ricardo, a Peruvian translator living in Paris, fell madly in love with a girl called Lily. Lily is mainly unavailable to him but keeps reappearing in his life for short periods of intense love, followed by heartbreak and misery. The Dutch title, “The Unattainable Girl,” does a better job of honoring the story: an uncommon, almost impossible, but beautiful love story
