Mozambique: Gigliola Zacara film entered for Cape Verde Film Festival

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Mozambique: Gigliola Zacara film entered for Cape Verde Film Festival

5:32 CAT | 26 Mar 2021

Photo: O País

A short film ‘Nkwama’, directed by Mozambican Gigliola Zacara, has been selected to enter the Festival of Films Directed by Women (CENA) in Cape Verde. The festival takes place online, and the new version of the film can be viewed at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Last year, Gigliola Zacara went through a full-scale depression. The cause? Confinement and all that that the word implies in terms of cancelling events and artistic projects. A year later, although the situation of artists remains uncertain, Gigliola Zacara smiles with satisfaction, having been invited to participate in the CENA Festival of Films Directed by Women.

The Cape Verdean initiative essentially intends to promote cinema made by African women directors from Portuguese-speaking countries and East Timor. Since the event includes screening of films projected from the archipelago to the entire world, Gigliola Zacara and her team are honoured to join the platform.

“At the event, I will not only be a filmmaker, but also a representative of our country. We are showcasing the diversity of our country and the quality of cinema professionals in Mozambique, and giving visibility to the artists who were part of this project,” she points out.

In participating in CENA, Gigliola Zacara hopes to reap from Nkwama’s exhibition what she needs to continue to make quality films. Potential viewers should access the CENA Facebook page at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday.

CENA – Film Festival Directed by Women takes place in collaboration with the University of Cape Verde in Mindelo, with additional support from the PALOP-TL Film and Audiovisual Network and the University of Kraków in Poland.

A prize-winning film

Gigliola Zacara’s film won one of the prizes in the short film competition at the Mozambican-German Cultural Centre last year, but that version was constrained by the competition’s five-minute duration limit.

Because the artist had a lot of unused material, she continued working after the contest, and, at the Festival of Films Directed by Women, presents a new 15-minute version of the film.

Nkwama is the story of Alice, a fighting character who is uncompromising in the search for solutions for her home. Alice makes plastic her source material, hence the title of the film – ‘nkwama’, Rhonga for plastic.

The film, in addition to telling a story about the struggle for survival, explores issues related to environmental conservation. Inspiration came from the daily life of waste pickers, but the story also delves into the main character’s family environment.

By José dos Remédios

Source: O País