There’s a difficulty in making any topic interesting and I’m deliberating on whether this documentary accomplishes this. As documentaries do, it tells its story through its images, like the high angle shot of the Atlantic. The Atlantic’s isolating infinity somehow reflects the feeling of its main subject, retired Cape Verdean fisherman Mr. Quirino. Mr. Quirino is the last resident of a Cape Verdean island village, a village depicted through some flashbacks. Viewers may think that those flashbacks depict Mr. Quirino as a child, and that may be the case here. A third into the documentary, one may ask why residents want to leave an isolated yet scenic village. The cinematography here at least fights for the village, although there’s equivocation here – beautiful isn’t livable. Carlos Yuri Ceuninck’s documentary The New Man takes a break from its protagonist’s old abandoned village, hinting that he eventually has to leave it.

Viewers may appreciate some neutrality in The New Man even if it mostly depicts and favours its protagonist’s old village. Sure, the Atlantic Ocean is just as beautiful as the community where Mr. Quirino’s neighbours live now. The documentary depicts them as blurry shadows, dancing to music that we never get to listen to. I’ve lurked on sites like Letterboxd to see what previous viewers liked and didn’t like about the documentary. I didn’t have a problem with how it characterises Mr. Quirino, nor did I notice pace issues here. The documentary, in fairness, states two hypotheses as to why the villagers abandoned a place they call home. Both are plausible and are arguably interconnected, but the film just needed to take a side. That said, it’s understandable why it chooses to tell the story the way Mr. Quirino does.

Watch The New Man as part of  this year’s Hot Docs.