305 S. Campbell, Suite 101
Springfield, MO 65806
(417) 429-0800
info@moxiecinema.com
Reunited after 17 years, an Angolan immigrant is joined in the U.S. by his wife and daughter. Now strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help them overcome the distance between them.
(NR, 101 min.)
6:00 PM
8:30 PM
4:15 PM
It’s been 17 years since Walter was forced to leave his family in Angola. Now he is picking up his wife, Esther, and daughter, Sylvia, from the airport to bring them home to his one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. The reunion isn’t seamless. Walter cooks a welcome dinner, and Esther wonders who taught him how to cook. Before they eat, Esther says grace, revealing her thunderous new passion for Jesus. And later, Walter realizes that he has not moved on from Linda, his lover who moved out of his apartment to make way for the family. When young Sylvia starts to explore the city and takes part in a dance competition, she unexpectedly opens up a pathway of muscle memory for the family to rediscover one another.
Director Ekwa Msangi crafts a vibrant, eye-opening film full of music, atmosphere, and an emotional complexity that illuminates every character’s point of view. Farewell Amor is a human, intergenerational, and deeply personal look at an immigrant story—the type of story that has defined America since its inception. [Sundance Institute]
Starring: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, Jayme Lawson
Director: Ekwa Msangi
Genre(s): Drama, Music, Romance
"A moving exploration of the meaning of home."
— Beandrea July, Hollywood Reporter
"An auspicious start to a career that's likely to accelerate fast."
— Leslie Felperin, Guardian
"It's a captivating and well-acted character study about connection, loss and the emotional labor needed for second chances."
— Aramide Tinubu, Shadow and Act
"A compassionate, empathetic, and moving exploration of love and family, and what these ideas can even mean after so long apart."
— Angie Han, FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
"Ultimately, Farewell Amor is a heartening meditation on the meaning of home not just for one African immigrant family, but for all of mankind."
— Reporter Beandrea, The Hollywood Reporter
"In her feature film debut, writer/director Msangi reveals the maturity of her storytelling talent and her strong aptitude for eliciting terrific performances from her actors."
— Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"Though Farewell Amor is not a 'dance movie', it’s primarily about that moment when we dance - when everything else falls away, Amor takes over, and we bid our troubles farewell."
— Alex Saveliev, Film Threat
"The performances sell it, especially from Lawson, who comes out a real shining star, not just in her obvious dancing abilities, but in how she telegraphs so much with so little."
— Ryan Lattanzio, indieWire
