Cinema, paths and dynamics of co-production with Mozambique: an exploratory look

Abstract

This article provides a brief analysis of the dynamics of co-production between Portugal and Mozambique. It focuses on films financed by the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual (Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual; ICA) between 2014 and 2020, under the Programa de Apoio ao Cinema – Apoio à Coprodução com Países de Língua Portuguesa (Film Support Programme – Co-production Support with Portuguese-Speaking Countries). In all, 16 films received funding from ICA, and some are still in the production process. Five are co-productions with Mozambican participation – Vovó dezanove e o segredo do soviético (Grandma nineteen and the soviet's secret), by João Ribeiro; Desterrados (The outcasts), by Yara Costa; As noites ainda cheiro a pólvora (The nights still smell of gunpowder), by Inadelso Cossa; O ancoradouro do tempo (The anchorage of time), by Sol de Carvalho, and À mesa da unidade popular (At the table of popular unity), by Camilo de Sousa and Isabel de Noronha. Exploratory documentary analysis (Wolff, 2004) indicates that the currently funded films address themes associated with colonialism and current sociopolitical and cultural events. The Mozambican documentaries, in particular, narrate the struggles for independence in Mozambique, the civil war, but fiction films that are adaptations of literary works by internationally recognized African authors, such as the Angolan writer Ondjaki and the Mozambican Mia Couto, have also been financed.