Farewell Amor Movie Review - Hello Stranger

A family adjusts to life in New York while attempting to fill the void in their relationship.

The airport functions routinely with the usual chatters and announcements as people move to and fro on the screen. The camera is placed objectively, giving us the freedom to scan any part of the frame. Should we keep an eye on the passing passengers or look behind them at the peeps holding cardholders for their friends/relatives? Yes, and yes. Suddenly, a figure moves forward to greet two arrivals. The manner in which they embrace each other suggests a reunion after a long separation. Throughout this time, the features of all the people in the frame are obscured. They appear more like silhouettes. Given that director Ekwa Msangi's Farewell Amor deals with joining an Angolan immigrant with his family, this silhouette visual helps include other Angolan families (or any other family, not just this one) who have gone through similar experiences. Another character-driven approach can be taken for reading this scene. Since the family is uniting after many years, there is a feeling of alienation between them. And so, the silhouette like approach makes sense as they do not clearly see through each other.

How long was this separation? 17 years. It's more than enough to turn a friend into a complete stranger. Poor Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is in for surprises. He is taken aback when his wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), asks him to pray at the dinner table. As far as he recalls, she was not so religious. "How long has she been so religious?" he questions Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), his daughter. Sylvia is distant from Walter. She is angry. When Esther assures Sylvia that Walter should not be blamed for the separation and that he tried his best, Sylvia objects, "Why didn't he come back home then?"

17 years away from the father and 17 years together with the mother. The general verdict here is that she has grown apart from Walter and closer to Esther. But that's not the case. She is a stranger to both of them. With Walter, you can see the distance in awkward pauses as there is a struggle to continue the conversation after asking how school was today. With Esther, a lack of understanding prevails mentally. Esther keeps putting restrictions on Sylvia for her own good. She pokes Sylvia on her choice of boots and later punishes - after catching her with a boy - by ordering her to stop dancing, "From now on, you go to school, you come straight back. No friends, no activities, and no dancing." Dance for Sylvia is an escape from all the personal troubles. She neither raises her voice nor complains much about relocation. She misses her old place, her friends, and doesn't like moving to New York. Since her lips refrain from voicing an opinion, she channels every bit of energy through the body, allowing it to move in every direction and every way possible.

It's understandable if Esther may come across as a villain to some. But when we get to her story (the film is told from the perspective of Walter, Sylvia, and Esther giving each of them their individual segments), we understand where she is coming from. Being away from her husband, Esther got lonely and decided to put her faith in religion. The sisters might have preached surface-level positive balderdash, and, given her desolate state, she would have wrapped herself around it. How could she have socialized with her daughter? One needs a company of the same age to feel included and to be entertained. At church, she must have got it all. Sweet talk, friendliness, you name it. In return, the church demands prayers and "offerings." When Esther finally reunites with her husband and the family becomes a whole, she gets so ecstatic that she sends $1000 to the church. According to her, God is good, and he has accepted her prayers. Now she has to return favors in the form of donations. Oh, dear Esther.

Msangi has an eye for capturing the feeling of characters on the camera. When Walter has the last dance with Linda (Nana Mensah), a woman he had an affair with, their movements are recorded sensually. You feel the flame as we are kept in their proximity witnessing the slithering of their bodies. When Esther comments on Sylvia's boots, you understand Sylvia's sulky face because we all have been bossed around by our parents to adapt to things as per their choice. Likewise, seeing Esther crying and on the verge of losing faith (after coming to know about Linda), one can't help but show compassion for a woman who, after all, just wants her family to be happy and safe. To hell with $1000 if that is what it takes. To elicit the required response, the actors need to be brilliant, something Farewell Amor doesn't lack. Mwine, Jah, Lawson, and Mensah, all of them, speak volumes without saying words. Let's not forget Joie Lee playing the next-door neighbor Nzingha. She becomes friends with Esther, introducing her to local shops for buying quality products.

Farewell Amor loses steam when it touches on routine beats. There is a mean girl at school, a cute boy at school, a competition disguised as an opportunity for someone to break free, and given its blueprint - that of characters repressing real emotions before erupting like a volcano in the finale - a scene where everybody vents out their original thoughts. Surprisingly, Farewell Amor finds lekker ways to deal with these moments, which feels satisfying and in sync with the overall tone of the film. Msangi is a talented filmmaker. Let's see where she goes next.

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