
I Only Rest in the Storm

Alberto is a Portuguese environmental engineer who decided to change his life. He travels to a West African metropolis (an imaginary and futuristic city that has both Guinea-Bissau and Luanda), where he will work as an engineer in the construction of a road between the jungle and the desert. Moved by the hostility of the elements, the oppressive heat and the loneliness, Alberto meets Ema and Ben. Like him, these two locals are driven by an impulse to escape and overcome their origins. The bond between the three becomes for Alberto the only guarantee of mental health amidst a process of brutalization and widespread barbarism that spreads among his fellow expatriates, from the construction site to the NGO offices.
[Cannes '25] The story becomes increasingly captivating as it explores the different realities of West Africa, subject to power struggles and corruption, but also to a certain subversion in a country like Guinea-Bissau, which resists new forms of economic colonialism. Through a story in which desire becomes relevant in the relationships between the protagonists, it presents a less pleasant perspective on the work of NGOs, establishing their relationships with dark powers, in an epic narrative about the intimacy of its characters.