My Semba

My Semba / Meu semba

Hugo Salvaterra, Angola, 2026, 93’

A colorful city symphony set to the rhythms of rap poetry reveals stories of unwavering resilience and dignity amid the harsh daily life of Luanda’s working people.

X and his siblings, Lelé and Maria, grew up at the Divine Providence Home under the guidance of Father Jonas. They endure miserable wages and undignified working conditions, much like the majority of the working class in an African metropolis. Maria clings to her faith and family values, Lelé fights fire with fire against Luanda’s injustices, and X, the poet, seeks to make sense of his world by painting the city with words. When the life of their father figure (Father Jonas) is threatened, they must confront their deepest fears to save him. My Semba is Salvaterra’s debut feature film—an ode to music, poetry, and cinema.

“My Semba is a place of woven narratives about the common young man and woman living in the city of Luanda today. A film deeply rooted in lyricism and poetry, which to me represents the highest possibility of connection and communication. It is also a meta live action, where spoken word and rap live, art forms in virtue of the great African oral traditions — mantras of affirmation and truths from subjective perspectives, seeking an urgent collective definition of our urban way of life, in its zeitgeist.” Hugo Salvaterra

Hugo Salvaterra is a writer, photographer, and musician, a multidisciplinary artist who has been concentrating these skills into screenwriting and film direction for more than 10 years. His dedication to humanist ideals shines through both his static and moving imagery. With a particular focus on the African continent and its diaspora, he self-identifies as a Pan-African storyteller, producing audiovisual art in diverse formats—feature films, short films, experimental works, documentaries, music videos, and advertising.

Introduction: Hugo Salvaterra