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THE SOUND OF MASKS

By Kofi ZWANA , Sara GOUVEIA

NATIONAL FILM & VIDEO FOUNDATION OF SOUTH AFRICA (NFVF) - as FIN

Documentary - Completed 2015

A visual account of Mozambique’s past and present told through dance. “The Sound of Masks” follows a community of ex-combatants that are facing eviction from their homes.

- Year of production
- 2015
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA, MOZAMBIQUE
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 75 mn
- Director(s)
- Kofi ZWANA , Sara GOUVEIA
- Cast
- Atanásio NYUSI, Jaime MANUPA
- Producer(s)
- Kofi ZWANA, Sara GOUVEIA
- Synopsis
- A visual account of Mozambique’s past and present told through dance. “The Sound of Masks” focuses on a group of people, the Makonde, living in the Military Zone in Maputo. They were given land as a reward for fighting in both the independence and civil wars. Ironically, they are currently facing eviction by the very same government they fought for to make way for housing for the rich.
  
  What makes it interesting is that they have a dance called Mapiko, which through time has told the story of their struggles and has become a living archive of their history from pre-colonialism to the present day. We want to create a visual account of Mozambique’s past and present told through the dance in an effort to create a dynamic, poetic interpretation of a country’s journey and its peoples’ struggles.
  
  In the face of this political and economic conflict, the community is fighting back in the form of protests, council meetings with government and through the Mapiko dance. Our film blends poetic observation and experimental dance sequences to look at this situation against the backdrop of a long struggle over history. We use Mozambique as a microcosm of a narrative taking place all over the continent and hopefully gain a sense of what directions might be possible for the future.