Asphalt Guerilla

Can films serve as a weapon in the political struggle against oppression and exploitation? Might they even be more powerful and effective than the terrorist actions that were carried out in 1980s Portugal by the “Forças Populares 25 de Abril”, best known as FP-25. These two questions lie at the heart of Edgar Pêra’s anarchic film essay and manifesto, »Asphalt Guerrilla«. Drawing on Manuel Ricardo de Sousa’s novel of the same name, the Portuguese punk auteur recounts not only the bank robberies and other operations of a rather amateurish FP-25 cell but also reflects on his own more than thirty years spanning efforts to adapt the book for the screen. Fiction, documentary, and autobiography blend together, alongside 16mm footage, newsreels, and AI-generated sequences, to create a wild, intoxicating trip. The creative liberty Pêra exercises does more than just shatter cinematic conventions; his at times dizzying visuals and scenes effectively become a weapon. They take direct aim at our entrenched and overly narrow conceptions of art and power, politics and society, profoundly shaking their foundations.