The documentary film project As noites ainda cheiram a pólvora, by Mozambican director Inadelso Cossa, will receive production funding from a German fund as part of the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, the Berlinale has revealed.
Cossa, who had already taken part in the Berlin festival's talent programme in 2015, is receiving funding for a documentary project based on the impact of the Civil War in Mozambique, which will be worked on this year.
His most recent documentary project As noites ainda cheiram a pólvora will receive funding for production from a German fund as part of the 2024 Berlin film festival. The film in question will receive 25,000 euros in production funding from the World Cinema Fund, set up by the German government in partnership with the film festival.
The nights still smell of gunpowder is a co-production between Mozambique, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands and Portugal and in 2021 the project had already been selected for the Venice Film Festival's "Final Cut" programme.
Inadelso Cossa: the filmmaker who enchants with his talent
Mozambique is a land full of talent. Whether it's in sport, music or cinema, we can easily find names that have increasingly caught the world's attention and left the most diverse audiences surrendered to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
Find out a little more about this film-maker who has increasingly conquered the world with his work.
Born in Maputo in 1984, Inadelso Cossa is a film director, i.e. one of the most creative directors, Mozambican producer and founder of 16mmFILMES, an independent film and television company based in Mozambique.
His work explores different phases in the history of Africa, particularly Mozambique, from a personal perspective. Investigating the colonial, post-colonial, independence and post-civil war periods, Cossa considers it his duty to document what he calls "acts of memory".
He was awarded the Estação Imagem-Mora for best documentary at the FIKE - Évora International Short Film Festival, 2013, and the Special Jury prize at the FFER - Rétif International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2013.
His first feature documentary: A Memory in Three Acts was financed by the IDFA Bertha Fund and he participated in the IDFAacademy for script consultancy and post-production.
In 2016, the film was selected for the first-appearance competition at the IDFA - International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2016 and has since participated in festivals such as the Goteborg International Film Festival 2017, Indielisboa - Lisbon International Independent Film Festival 2017, Durban International Film Festival 2017, Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival 2017, Zanzibar International Film Festival 2018, among other important festivals.
The film A Memory in Three Acts also received the Jury's Honourable Mention at the Recife International Ethnographic Film Festival 2017, Brazil and in 2018 it won the Special Jury Prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival 2018. The prize consisted of a scholarship to study film at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Germany, supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
In 2018, he was invited to be a member of the IDFA jury in a short documentary competition. The film director is now working on his first fiction project called: Karingana - The Dead Tell No Tales and a documentary called The Nights Still Smell Like Gunpowder. This documentary in the development phase has already been selected by the IDFA Bertha Fund and awarded a development grant at the first edition of Atlas Workhop 2018, an event at the Marrakech International Film Festival 2018.
Since 2020, the Mocambican director has been a member of the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which annually awards the Oscars, making up the list of 819 new members invited that year.
Inadelso Cossa is one of the talents that fill us with pride. A Mozambican director, he is one of the 10 filmmakers selected by the Fabrique des cinémas du monde, an initiative of the Institut français de Cannes, which sponsors film projects.
By Cláudia Sainda
