‘I Only Rest In The Storm’ Trailer: Portuguese Un Certain Regard Title Delves Into Neo-Colonialism & International NGOs – Cannes

Melanie Goodfellow

Thu, May 22, 2025 at 2:51 PM UTC

2 min read

‘I Only Rest In The Storm’ Trailer: Portuguese Un Certain Regard Title Delves Into Neo-Colonialism & International NGOs – Cannes

Pedro Pinho’s drama I Only Rest In The Storm, set in West Africa, explores the complex relationship between neo-colonialism and international NGOs through the story of an environmental engineer working on a road project between the desert and the forest.
The film delves into the protagonist's intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two city inhabitants, Diara and Gui, as neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, highlighting themes of solitude, barbarism, and the struggle for identity transcendence.
I Only Rest In The Storm, produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato and Terratreme Films, is being showcased at Cannes Un Certain Regard, shedding light on the never-ending 'encounter' between Europe and Africa, and the elusive battle for a queer becoming in a West African city.

EXCLUSIVE:Portuguese director Pedro Pinho’s West Africa-set drama I Only Rest In The Storm is playing in Cannes Un Certain Regard this year and Deadline can reveal the international trailer.

Delving into uncomfortable truths about the relationship between neo-colonialism and international NGOs, the drama stars Sérgio Coragem as an environmental engineer who travels to West Africa to work on a road project between the desert and the forest.

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There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.

Coragem is joined in the cast by Cape Verdean Portuguese actress Cleo Diára ( Diamantino , Mulheres, às Armas ) and artist and actor Jonathan Guilherme.

Pinho was previously in Cannes with debut feature film The Nothing Factory , which premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2017, receiving the Fipresci Prize.

“This road, financed by the World Bank and constructed by a Brazilian Chinese consortium, is meant to bridge two opposing landscapes: the arid solitude of the desert and the dense, animistic abundance of the jungle. But beyond economic ambition, it ultimately remains a rupture scar in a territory that resists being tamed,” says Pinho.

“At its heart lies the never-ending ‘encounter’ between Europe and Africa, contrasted with an elusive battle for a queer becoming, played out in the nightclubs, streets, and backrooms of a West African city. Within this often violent fight for identity transcendence, one might glimpse escape routes, the possibility of radical subversion, or the surviving traces of tenderness,” he added of the film.

The film is produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato ( Grand Tour, Légua ) and Terratreme Films ( Nothing Factory , in co-production with Still Moving in France ( Baby, Tiger Stripes), Bubbles Project in Brazil ( Loveling , Puan ) and deFilm in Romania ( To the North ).

Paradise City is handling international sales.

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