_{Nayola by José Miguel Ribeiro}

Nayola is a highly expressionistic and dynamic tale set in modern Angola, examining three generations of women plagued by the civil war; Lelena (the grandmother), Nayola (the daughter) and Yara (the granddaughter). In the film, past and present interweave. Nayola goes in search of her husband who disappeared during the war but decades later, even as the country is finally at peace, she is yet to return. In the meantime Yara has become a rebellious teenager and rap singer, both subversive and highly politicised.

Co-producer Michiel Snijders of il Luster Films always wanted to be involved in José Miguel Ribeiro’s film, especially after watching the pitch at Cartoon Movie in 2018. He was already a big fan of the director having co-produced Ribeiro's short Sunday Drive.

Initially, the budget on Nayola was too high, but when he met with the director the following year the prospect seemed altogether more realistic after the film’s finances were trimmed.

“We thought Nayola was a beautiful project,” says Snijders. “The only reason we did not get into it immediately was practical financial reasons, but we kept in contact - that is how it works. They changed the budget and then we were able to participate.”

The il Luster CEO was also moved by what he could see was a very pertinent tale, and one that has taken even greater significance given the global situation in 2022. What is more, Nayola was destined to be the first animated feature out of Portugal. “Which is quite a challenge,” Snijders remarks. “So we said to ourselves, ‘Do not mess this up. The stakes are high. It is a very important story.”

The 2D animation is rich and vivid and highly evocative, and illustrates very effectively the sense of despair brought on by war, the expression of a political voice and the flowering of a new hope.

Given how the pandemic was raging in early 2020, the production workflow was far from standard. From the beginning, all the partners on the film agreed that it would be most interesting for all the partner countries (Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, and France) to deliver entire animated scenes as opposed to services, something made easier in terms of continuity by the film being set across three eras – “the past, the present and a dreamscape time,” explains Snijders.

Ironically, even though the Dutch animators were working on the film’s final sequence they were the first off the mark into production, with Snijders determined to keep output ticking over as uncertainty raged elsewhere across the film industry during the early days of Covid-19. “Miguel developed a lot of the final style and designs with us in this phase. So there was a lot of communication between him and the animators in the Netherlands. Some of the pre-production that would normally be done by the main producer was being done together with our team. So that was interesting from a creative point of view.”

What is more, the film received minority backing from the Netherlands Film Fund, as well Production Incentive support.

“What I see is that [animation] has been growing as an industry in The Netherlands, and right now I think it is a nice hybrid combination of offering a lot of well-trained creative graphic talent which comes from all the years of making independent shorts, and being quite industrious and very practical - and we do like to collaborate,” reflects Snijders on Dutch credentials as a co-production partner across the international animation sector.

“And what I see, especially when I look at my colleagues who have bigger studio ambitions, is how they can quickly shift gears to contribute financially and creatively to international projects, and at the same time help build a viable animation industry at home.”

Nayola is co-produced by il Luster Films. Sales are handled by Urban Distribution International. Click here for the full screening schedule of all Dutch animations at Annecy 2022.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________