World renowned performer Cesária Évora’s voice took her from poverty to stardom. With previously unseen footage and insights into the singer’s life, the film follows her struggles and success.
Cesária Évora made the music of the Cape Verde islands famous throughout the world in the early 1990s. This film is an introduction to the culture, music and zest for life of the Cape Verdean people. On the occasion of the famous carnival of Mindelno, on the island of São Vicente where Cesaria Évora was born, this documentary offers a musical journey to discover "Sodade" and its legacy. Cesaria Évora, who died in 2011 after a twenty-year career, has allowed Cape Verde to shine throughout the world. The "barefoot diva", considered the queen of the morna has conquered the world and inspired many Cape Verdean artists. The small archipelago, which was for several centuries an important hub of the slave trade has promoted since then an important ethnic mix, which has played an important role in the evolution of local music.
"Beti is a dancer in the Raiz di Polon company in Cape Verde. She receives an offer from Lisbon to join a Cape Verde music show and start a new career there. The offer unchains the deep-set Cape Verde conflict in her: identity built on the Diaspora century after century. Doubts, nostalgia, uprooting, they all soar over her and accompany her decision. The same dilemma that surrounds all Cape Verdeans, the yearning to leave, the yearning to return. Expressed and brought together around music, hallmark of the people of Cape Verde."
Cesária Évora was a Cape Verdean singer-songwriter. She received a Grammy Award in 2004 for her album Voz d'Amor. Nicknamed the "Barefoot Diva" for performing without shoes, she was known as the "Queen of Morna".
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