A film from Mozambique

The Walker Art Center is a co-sponsor of Global Lens 2007, a series of films produced by the Global Film Initiative. The Walker provides a site for the showing of films that would not have been made without the support of the Initiative, and that certainly might otherwise never be outside the festival circuit. This interview with Dean Otto talks about its fourth season.

Today I joined some friends at noon to see a film from Mozambique called Another Man's Garden (O jardim do outro homem). The title comes from a saying: "educating a girl is like cultivating another man's garden." It is the first feature-length film to be made in Mozambique in many years; the National Cinema Institute founded by Samora Machel in 1975 immediately after independence burned in 1991, one of the many losses that country has suffered from its fifteen years of war. The film dramatizes the enormous obstacles a bright high school girl from a poor family faces in her quest pass a biology text so she can go to University, and become a doctor: an iron burn on her shirt means she might not be allowed through the school gates; she doesn't have money to replace it--will she steal? her boyfriend doesn't support her studying; her biology teacher tries to blackmail her into exchanging sex for a grade on her exam. She persists through hard work, spunk, and luck; finally, it takes the combined forces of her grandmother, her best friend and her best friend's aunt to keep her from "falling into one of the holes." We don't know at the end of the film if Sofia will reach her goal. Afterwards, one friend was dismissive of the film for some aspects that seem crude to our (jaded) eyes, but another friend and I saw our daughters and their (our) dreams in Sofia.

Here is a link to TravelBlogs' Mozambique section where one can see pictures and read stories told by travelers.

I found this blog entry about the film's premiere in Maputo at Green Chick Diaries. Reading more of Jen's entries, I learned about Women's Day in Mozambique, but also about a horrific event, the legacy of the years of war the country endured: poorly stored munitions exploded because of heat, killing and wounding hundreds, including many children. As is so often the case in situations like these, it is likely that corruption and neglect were an important factor.

I left a comment on Jen's blog to let her know that she has a reader who is grateful for her pictures and stories about Maputo and Mozambique.