I Only Rest in the Storm (, lit. "The Laugh and the Knife") is a 2025 drama film produced, co-written and directed by Pedro Pinho. Starring Sérgio Coragem, Cleo Diára and Jonathan Guilherme, it follows a white Portuguese environmental engineer who takes a job position in Guinea-Bissau, and his complicated relationship with two black locals.
The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2025, where it was nominated for the Queer Palm and Diára won the section's Best Actress prize. It was theatrically released in Portugal on 30 October by Uma Pedra no Sapato.
Portuguese environmental engineer Sérgio travels to Guinea-Bissau to work in a NGO construction of a road between a desert and a forest. His next door neighbor, Diára, is a free minded young woman and close friend of Gui, a gay Brazilian man who is part of the marginalized queer community of Bissau. Sérgio becomes involved in an intimate unbalanced relationship with both of them, as he delves deeper into the neocolonialist dynamics of the expatriate community in the "third world".
In October 2018, the project received a â¬141,000 production grant from the Romanian National Film Center. In November 2020, it was selected to participate in the European Coproductions meeting, initiated by Seville European Film Festival.
I Only Rest in the Storm had its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2025. Prior to its premiere, Paradise City Sales acquired the film's international sales.
It was theatrically released in France on 9 July by Météore Films, and in Portugal on 30 October by Uma Pedra no Sapato.
Miriam Balanescu of IndieWire gave the film a grade of Aâ and pointed out its different distinction of non-governmental organization in films.