Cinema
Flame
Ingrid Sinclair · 1996
Synopsis
1975, in Rhodesia, as the nationalist guerrilla war intensifies. Florence, a young peasant girl from Mashonaland whose father has just been arrested by the Rhodesian forces, runs away with her friend Nyasha to join the guerrillas. The two teenagers cross the war-torn country and slip over the border to a training camp in Mozambique, where they take noms de guerre: Flame for the one, who has a passionate temperament, Liberty for the other, who dreams of independence. In the camp, violence does not come only from the enemy.
Context
The first Zimbabwean film since independence devoted to the armed struggle, it was meant as a tribute to the many women fighters of the nationalist army. Written by the director with Barbara Jago and Philip Roberts, and produced by Joel Phiri and Simon Bright, with French and Namibian co-producers, it was shot in English. During the editing, the police seized the copies, judging the film subversive and pornographic: former fighters objected to the scene in which a recruit is raped by a political commissar. Returned after an international campaign, the film passed the censors and became the biggest success of the year in Zimbabwe.
Who it is for
In English, about an hour and a half. The film briefly shows a rape; the rest follows life in the camps and the post-war period.
Prizes and reception
Presented at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1996; grand prize at Annonay, Nestor Almendros Prize at the Human Rights Watch festival.
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