Directed by artist and animator Rob Heppell, the film reflects the civil war that took place in the producer’s native Angola.
Nazar’s music is an undeniably immersive experience. He incorporates the sound of weapons and helicopters found online, and transports the listener into a context of violence and sadness through sampling the sounds of the world around him. In the rough kuduro Nazar makes, he tries to place that true form of expression in the light of the Angolan civil war.
There is a true story behind each track of Nazar’s debut album, giving the feeling of an eleven episode documentary series. The cutting “Bunker” remembers the aftermath of the 55-day war that followed the 1992 elections and left more than 12,000 dead.
Directed by Rob Heppell – who has worked with Gaika, Crystal fighters and Echo lake – the film was shot in October 2019 at Studio GKZ, Somerset House London and animated over the next eight months while under lockdown in China and the UK.
In a statement, Rob Heppell describes the storytelling behind the short animated: “ Nazar told me about a situation in Angola in 1992; after 17 years of the civil war with countless lives destroyed between warring factions – the ruling MPLA agreed to hold an election. Politicians from militarised groups came to the capital Luanda for the election. Wary of the potential for it to be a lure to trap them in the heart of enemy territory, the UNITA party supporters helped stage and voted in the election. When the result was declared a victory for the ruling party it disintegrated into claims of a rigged vote. MPLA troops began killing rival supporters all across the city, at voting stations and newspaper headquarters and in the street, in violence that would reignite another 13 years of civil war.”
Guerrilla can be bought and streamed here.
