It was also the first ethnofiction film to show the experiences of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, blending contemporary history with mythology.

It is true that where Diminga lives, in between the crying, there are great celebrations for the end of the war.

As Flora Gomes suggests, Africa cannot be itself without its beliefs, its myths, its philosophy, and its culture.

The year the film premiered, 1988 "not only marks the 25th anniversary of the independence of Guinea-Bissau and the assassination of its leader Amílcar Cabral, it is also the year in which the country was practically annihilated by a brutal civil war” (Teresa Ribeiro, a journalist for Voice of America).

It is a love story: nervous, carnal, sensitive” (René Marx, Pariscope, March 14, 1990).