“A State for one man is no State at all” are the words from Sophocles’ Antigone. Sara has lost her brother to Covid–19. She wants nothing more than to say goodbye to her brother with a traditional burial that respects the Cape Verdean culture and grave site. In a world silenced and halted by the pandemic, the young woman connects with her community and memories.

The film’s title seemingly foretells: the burial of the brother is to be met with the death penalty. By playing with the elements of the Greek myth and its parallels with a not-so-distant past, the Portuguese director Godinho reflects on intimacy during bereavement and identity. When it seems that a part of us is lost, we reunite with our former self. Godinho is a director and screenwriter who has also studied North American culture, but RIGA IFF audiences will recognise him as the screenwriter of the award-winning short Dogs that Bark at the Birds (2019), which was screened in Riga.