Cast

Birgitta Dahl

Birgitta Dahl was a member of the Swedish Parliament from 1969 to 2002. During that time she was also Minister of Energy Affairs, of Environment, and Speaker of the Parliament.

As a close confidant to the Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme, she visited the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau during the Liberation War.

Lars Rudebeck

Lars Rudebeck is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Uppsala University in Sweden. He visited together with Birgitta Dahl Guinea-Bissau’s liberated areas during the Liberation War.

He has travelled many times to Guinea-Bissau, becoming one of the most renowned experts on the country in the field of political science.

Joop de Jong

Joop de Jong arrived as a young doctor in Guinea-Bissau during the Liberation War. After the independence, in 1980, he was charged with setting up the National System of Mental Health.

He left Guinea-Bissau in 1985 and founded the NGO Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO). He specialised in psychiatry and works as an advisor for the World Health Organisation and United Nations..

Nikola Arsenic

Nikola Arsenic is a Serbian architect. He met the PAIGC leader Alberto Lima Gomes in Belgrade Architecture University in the 70’s. Lima Gomes became Minister of Public Works and asked his friend Nikola to join him and help to build the new State. Nikola went to Guinea-Bissau with his wife and two children as the first international aid worker of the country. He planned and designed the most prominent buildings that were constructed after the independence. He left Guinea-Bissau in 1981.

Nikola Arsenic Jr.

Nikola Arsenic Jr. spent ten years of his childhood in Guinea-Bissau. He followed the path of his father and became an architect. Today he is based in Brazil where he owns his own architecture studio. He has never returned to Guinea-Bissau.

Svetlana Arsenic Borovnica

Svetlana Arsenic Borovnica is a Serbian lawyer, diplomat, and former wife of Nikola Arsenic. She accompanied him to Guinea-Bissau and worked at the Ministry of Justice. She was the Head of the
Guinea-Bissau National Constitution Commission after its independence.

Steven van den Berg

Steven van den Berg is a Dutch builder who went to Guinea-Bissau in 1977 to work as project manager in development cooperation projects. He settled down with his wife and three daughters in the small town of Catio, where he also opened a shop that for many years served as the social hub for the town.

Lotte and Lisa van den Berg

Lotte and Lisa van den Berg are the daughters of Steven van den Berg. Lotte arrived in Guinea-Bissau in 1979 when she was one year old, and Lisa was born there. They were raised in Catio where they were fully integrated into the local life. They left the country in 1989.

Tom Young

Tom Young is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the editor of Readings in African Politics. His work on Africa has been a great inspiration in the production of “The Vanished Dream”.

Carlos Barbosa

Carlos Barbosa is the director of the electric power plant of Bafatá. He has been working there for the last 25 years. He still remembers when the power plant used to provide energy to the whole province. Today there is no electricity in the majority of homes in Bafatá.