Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

 

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

 

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2)
Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

 

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Ekwa Msangi
USA 2020

 

Ekwa Msangi’s feature debut chronicling the experience of an Angolan family who reunite in New York after 17 years apart.

In her luminous feature debut, filmmaker Ekwa Msangi chronicles a broken family’s journey to wholeness with empathy and insight. Seventeen years after his family was separated by the civil war in Angola, a New York taxi driver (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is reunited with his now devoutly religious wife (Zainab Jah) and teenage daughter (Jayme Lawson) when they are finally able to follow him to America. But after living thousands of miles apart for so long, the three find they must discover one another’s strengths, forgive one another’s weaknesses, and bridge cultural and generational divides in order to build a life together. Told in three perspective-shifting chapters that honor the multitude of struggles and emotions that make up the immigrant experience, Farewell Amor is a bittersweet, compassionate evocation of how it feels when your heart and your home are in different places.

***

Reunited after a 17-year separation, Walter, an Angolan immigrant, is joined in the U.S. by his wife and teenage daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help overcome the emotional distance between them.

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 25th, 2020 (Sundance Film Festival)

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion Spine #1128 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:41:53.899  
Video

2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 48,283,910,147 bytes

Feature: 32,006,842,368 bytes

Video Bitrate: 36.00 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio English 3565 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3565 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Subtitles English (SDH), None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Criterion

 

2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 48,283,910,147 bytes

Feature: 32,006,842,368 bytes

Video Bitrate: 36.00 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• New audio commentary featuring Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole
• New interviews with actors Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, and Jayme Lawson (24:00)
Three short films by Msangi, including the prequel to "Farewell Amor"
• Farewell Meu Amor (10:06)
• The Market King (22:15)
• Suspense (11:57)
• Deleted scenes (13:12)
• Trailer (1:54)


Blu-ray Release Date: June 14th, 2022

Transparent Blu-ray Case

Chapters 23

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (June 2022): Criterion have transferred Ekwa Msangi's Farewell Amor to Blu-ray. It is cited as being a "Director-Approved Special Edition". Being a modern film this looks excellent in 1080P. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. There is impressive detail in the film's many close-ups, strong contrast, realistic colors and frequent depth is exported. It looks flawless in the 2.39: 1 aspect ratio with many beautifully shot scenes.

NOTE: We have added 44 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track (24-bit) in the original English language (with some Portuguese.) Farewell Amor is fairly passive but has some deft separations - airport, dance club etc. The score is by Osei Essed (who has done a lot of documentary work including Tower), and Farewell Amor some modern dance music - all sounding clean and crisp with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray offers a new commentary by Ekwa Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole. Writer / Director Ekwa Msangi talks about the inspiration of her aunt and uncle serperated over immigration issues and the opening scene at Terminal 4 at JFK in New York. Bruce Francis Cole talks about the frame with a frame shooting in the small apartment. They discuss the cast; Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah and Jayme Lawson and the crew, African cultural differences, connecting over dance and its freedom, the film as a triptych, her 2016 short Farewell Meu Amor as a treatise of the main feature, how editing helps tell the story and much more about the production - hurdles, changes, identities, the war in Angola, the power of music etc. There are also 24-minutes on interviews with Farewell Amor actors Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Walter), Zainab Jah (Esther), and Jayme Lawson (Sylvia), recalling making the film. Criterion include three short films by Msangi; Farewell Meu Amor can be thought of as an immediate prequel to Farewell Amor that depicts a man on the morning of a long-awaited reunion with his exiled family, and the heartbreak of parting from his lover. The Market King is Msangi's 24-minute, 2014, comedic short film about a well-intentioned father who must have his daughter's hair braided at the market, a space where only women usually go and lastly is the dozen-minute Suspense that tells the fictional story of a man and woman working for an underground liberation movement. This short is set amid the very real post-election violence in Kenya a few years before it was made. There are also 13-minutes of several scenes deleted from the final cut of Farewell Amor, including an alternate ending. Lastly is a 2-minute trailer for Farewell Amor.

Ekwa Msangi's debut feature Farewell Amor is told from the perspective of three different characters in the circumstance of a family's reunion after a long-separation. It shows the difficulties with the unachieved perceptions of coming together after 17-years - producing some unexpected consequences and conflicts. I couldn't help reflect on its universality of, example, a family member after a long incarceration - how time effects relationships, intimacy, maturity and, in this case, the culture shock of relocation to a new country. It's brilliantly realized by Msangi and quite poignant. I look forward to more from her. The Criterion Blu-ray offers a new director commentary (the company's first in a while), stellar a/v, three shorts, deleted scenes and interviews. An impressive film and package that we fully endorse.

Gary Tooze

 


Menus / Extras

 


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE

 

 

 
Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Criterion Spine #1128 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

 CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Thank You!