Ariel de Bigault's work has been connected to the routes of the Lusophone World. In Fantasmas do Império we are guided by the saotomean actor Angelo Torres through some works of the Portuguese cinema that explored its colonial past. Some directors as Fernando Matos Silva, João Botelho or Margarida Cardoso help to understand imperialism, colonialism, and propaganda seen through the "family album" which is the Portuguese cinematic collective imaginary.

Fantasmas do Império

At the end of the nineteenth century, two inexperienced Portuguese colonizers, with a vague intention of civilizing the colonies, disembark in a remote part of the Congo River in order to coordinate a trading post.  As time goes by, they become increasingly demoralized by their inability to profit from the ivory trade. A mutual feeling of distrust and misunderstadings with the locals isolate them at the heart of the tropical jungle. Faced with each other, they begin a journey towards the abyss.

An Outpost of Progress

Taiti, 1903. Doctor, poet and artist Victor Segalen left France and headed for Hiva-Oa, to meet Gauguin personally. On his arrival on the island, he learns the painter had passed away. Adapted from the writings of Victor Segalen, Longe da Estrada is a very fine view of the work, life and contradictions of the great painter Paul Gauguin. And a modern analysis of the relationship between colonizers and colonized people.