50 Kwanzas

Competition "Horizons" 2025

Follows Tchicolassonhi, a ‘Zungueira’ (in Angola, the term for female street vendors), in her daily struggle for better conditions for herself and her family. It is an almost endless journey in pursuit of the ’50 Kz’, one of the lowest-value and most widely circulated coins in Angola (around €0.4), which may mean little to many, but bring color to the life of a Zungueira. Beyond the subjectivity of value, the film delves into themes of grief, resilience, and offers a social critique of the police violence that Zungueiras face every day.

The entire film was animated frame by frame in Adobe Photoshop, edited in Davinci Resolve, and is the result of a mixture of digital and traditional art (many of the backgrounds and textures were made with watercolour and oil pastel).