53

On February 3 of 1953, the Portuguese colonial police forces massacred the population, causing an undetermined number of deaths in São Tomé and Príncipe.

"53" is a film about collective memory of Portuguese colonialism and the Massacre de 53/Trindade War occurred in São Tomé and Príncipe. In the film is represented through a conversation between a Healer and a Deadman, caught in a raid, tortured and thrown overboard sea in Fernão Dias. The dialogue was written in collaboration with the actors, based on stories shared by the population, Santomean literature, and testimonies of survivors and relatives of people murdered and disappeared in 1953, when police forces of the Portuguese Colonial Government moved into the interior of the island in the 3rd of February and, in the following weeks, they massacred the population, causing an undetermined number of deaths, disappearances and detainees, taken indiscriminately to labor and torture camps, such as the Fernão Dias concentration camp located in São Tomé and Príncipe.

53 [stills] 2023

DIALOGUE (a short extract)

“DEADMAN — Do you know? We don`t know why they killed us. That´s why we are returning from the sea. I was imprisoned in Fernão Dias and, they forced me to dry all water of the sea, later ordered me to dig a hole in the beach and buried me alive with my head out.

Later, they released me and they throw me overboard on the sea.

HEALER — Listen me, Deadman! We all tried to find our deceased relatives!  We searched on the sea waters, in the forest, in the city, under each banana tree.

We made D' Jambi (1) in the forest, so we would not be seen by them.

DEADMAN — At that time, the population was very scared. Every day, someone disappeared. Every night, my father slept on the top of a palm tree.

On Sunday, when we and my father were leaving our house to go to church, my father and other men were arrested in a raid.

On that day, my mother ran a lot to reach the truck until she got exhausted. Until that day, she continues to try to find us.”

(1) D' Jambi is rite of magic accompanied by music and dance, which aims to attract the souls of the dead and, through trance, communicate with them.