Farewell Amor (2020)'s activity

After 17 years in the U.S., an Angolan immigrant finally gets to bring his family over in Farewell Amor, including a wife who has fallen deep into religion and a teenage daughter who just wants to dance despite her mother using Footloose as a tenet of her faith. All the actors are good, but Jayme Lawson (who seemed on the cusp of something in 2022, with notable supporting roles in The Batman, The Woman King and How to Blow Up a Pipeline) as the daughter is particularly mysterious and entrancing. They all have their mysteries though, the director Ekwa Msangi doubles back on the drama to give each of their revelatory points of view. Because after all, this is about reconnecting with people you only ONCE knew, or in the case of the father-daughter relationship, never really knew at all. This is a reunion in the shadow of its title, which seems to signal something else. And for the father, there is the loss of a secret partner in the States, but is that all there is to it? Or will this family not survive coming together so late. Farewell Amor comes off as a sweet (bittersweet?) family drama supported by truthful performances and some amazing music.