José Eduardo Agualusa, the Angolan writer and co-author of the play on which Nayola, the impressive Portuguese animated film for adults from 2023, is based, talked about the story behind the film after to the screening. The interviewer was Maarten van Munster, senior lecturer in human rights at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and a PhD researcher focusing on the development of Angola’s reconciliation process.

In his first feature film, Portuguese filmmaker José Miguel Ribeiro tells the emotionally charged story of three women from the same family whose lives have been torn apart by the deadly civil war in Angola. Based on the play A Caixa Preta (The Black Box) by Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa and Mozambican writer Mia Cauto, Nayola interweaves the present and the past. Two eras lead to the same indestructible love of freedom. As a viewer, you are drawn into the civil war that lasted for decades and into a more contemporary Angola, which is still licking its wounds after the bloody conflict.

Nayola, a young mother, goes in search of her husband who went missing in the fighting, leaving her two-year-old daughter Yara with his grandmother Lelena. Years later, Yara is a rebellious teenager and a subversive rapper who is still frustrated by her mother's decision and the injustice that has Angola in a stranglehold.

Using a mix of 2D and 3D animation, the film depicts the devastating consequences of war on multiple generations. Ribeiro imbues his debut with a fascinating mysticism and explores conflict through magical realism. He addresses the harrowing Angolan reality, but does so with a flair for poetry, in which the jackal symbolises not only resilience, but also how people have learned to hide behind masks, both literally and figuratively.

José Eduardo Agualusa has published an extensive body of work comprising novels, short stories and novellas and numerous journalistic pieces (including for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo). As an important literary voice and a leading author of the Portuguese-speaking world, his at times magical-realist narratives, often rich in historical context, humor and references to Angola, also appeals to many readers outside that world: his work has been translated into at least 25 languages. His latest novel is Mestre dos batuques (2024, Master of Drums). In it, Agualusa rewrites history and describes how drums played an important role in the resistance against the Portuguese colonisers.

Maarten van Munster is a senior lecturer in human rights at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and a PhD researcher focusing on the development of Angola’s reconciliation process since the end of the civil war (1975-2002). His research examines both everyday, informal forms of reconciliation and the ways in which reconciliation is pursued within formal political frameworks. In 2025, he published on Angola’s reconciliation commission, established in 2019, as well as on public perceptions of the commission. His work is based on fieldwork in Angola, where he has also been a guest lecturer. Maarten works at the intersection of academic research, education, and public debate on post-conflict societies.

José Eduardo Agualusa wais a guest of the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague 2026. Next to his Q&A about Nayola he also participated in the programmes of the grand festival evenings Friday Night Unlimited (23 January) and Saturday Night Unlimited (24 January) at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag.