Expat Cinema: Cesária Évora

Global singing sensation Cesária Évora (1941-2011) was far from a diva. This loving portrait by director Ana Sofia Fonseca shows a singer who never forgot her humble origins and who always performed barefoot. A singer with a deep voice filled with melancholy, affected by her inner life and her country. That country is Cabo Verde, where Évora ended up in an orphanage at the age of ten because her mother was unable to raise her six children after the death of her husband. After a few years she fled the orphanage and became a bar singer. Her life changed when she became a star at age fifty.

What's remarkable i how little fame changed her. With archive footage, concert recordings, interviews and imagery of Cabo Verde, the film paints a picture of a woman who always remained true to herself and never surrendered her independence. She was also a woman who was forever marked by the experiences of her childhood. As she once told an interviewer: 'I don't believe in dreams!'