“The Anchorage of Time,” the latest film by Mozambican director Sol de Carvalho, premieres this Wednesday at the Cine-Teatro Scala in Maputo.
Produced by Real Ficção, the film is inspired by the novel “The Frangipani Balcony” by Mia Couto, a narrative that is part of the country's literary soul and now gains new life on the big screen. It arrives in Mozambique after a premiere in Portugal in June, where the film toured several cities and promoted meetings and debates between the director and the public.
According to the synopsis, Izidine, a newly graduated police inspector, is called to investigate a crime that occurred in an old colonial fortress that is currently an old people's home: Vasto Excelencio, the director, was murdered. Marta, the nursing home nurse, insists that Izidine lead the investigation into the real crime, which is what the nursing home represents, leading Izidine to confront a surprise.
All the old people initially confess to being the perpetrators of the crime. For various reasons, ranging from beating and mistreating the elderly, to domestic violence against his wife (who was a secret lover of one of them), to the nurse who had been his mistress and whom he had forced to have an abortion.
But the inspector will slowly discover that the real crime was committed by the director, who used the nursing home to smuggle weapons that the elderly end up making disappear, condemning the director to be killed by his accomplices.
The cast includes actors Maria Adamugy, Tomas Bié, Horácio Guiamba, Mário Mabjaia, and Josefina Massango. It was a co-production by Promarte (Mozambique), Autentika Films (Germany), Gamboa & Gamboa (Angola), and Caméléon Production (Mauritius).
(By MozaVibe)
