Mueda, memory and massacre
(Mueda, memória e massacre)

Much can certainly be said about the functions of theatre, and about the representation we form of the other and of ourselves in the heated hours of revolutions. It is thus no coincidence that the intuition of Ruy Guerra, who is recognised as a foremost figure of Brazil’s Cinema Novo, led him to film a theatrical re-enactment of the Mueda massacre in the very places where it was perpetrated by Portugal’s colonial army in 1960, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. This re-enactment, partly performed by survivors, gave rise to the first Mozambican feature film. Associated with the political vision of Samora Machel and the construction of the mythological foundations of the young People’s Republic, the film introduces a new formal invention that turns the commemoration of a brutal act into a celebration. AR