Though his father wanted him to work on the land, he attended a Franciscan primary school for 'indigenous' students and encountered teachers active in the national liberation movement.

In 1967, Amílcar Cabral sent him – together with José Bolama Cubumba, Josefina Lopes Crato and Flora Gomes – to study filmmaking at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos in Cuba.

[2] Na N’Hada started his own filmmaking with several short films, the first two co-directed with his contemporary Flora Gomes.

He was also assistant director to Flora Gomes for his first feature film, Mortu Nega [Those Whom Death Refused] (1988), and in Po di sangui [Blood Tree].

Xime was a historical film set in 1962, the year before Guinea Bissau's war of liberation started.