Pedro Pinho, director of "The Knife and the Laughter": "Everything is fiction, everything is scripted"
Interview : His latest film, released July 9, tells the story of a Portuguese engineer's immersion in Guinea-Bissau. The filmmaker reflects on the atmosphere of filming in this fascinating country, which nonetheless still bears the ghosts of colonialism.
Interview by Guillaume Loison
Portuguese director Pedro Pinho at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2025, where his film "The Laughter and the Knife" was presented in the Un Certain Regard section. DAVE BEDROSIAN/FUTURE IMAGE/COVER IMAGES/SIPA
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Pedro Pinho denies hiding behind Sergio (played by Sergio Coragem), the Portuguese engineer who, in "Laughter and the Knife," arrives in Guinea-Bissau with the best intentions: to blend in as an enlightened and respectful traveler in the society of this African country, always ready to love, understand, and help. But, from delightful encounters to more bitter observations—the persistence of the colonial legacy, stronger than anything—his hero's experience often echoes that of this Portuguese filmmaker, fond of the sensual style of Wong Kar-wai or the art of political debate dear to Robert Kramer and Alain Tanner.
With "Le Rire et le Couteau," presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival in May—where actress Cleo Diara won the Best Actress Award—before hitting French theaters on July 9, Pedro Pinho has created one of the most beautiful films of the year. Interview.
From Africa, you were mostly familiar with Mauritania and Cape Verde, the focus of your documentaries. What drew you to Guinea?
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