10 Best Movies from Mozambique to Watch First

10 Essential Films from Mozambique

Ranked native cinema in Mozambique’s own creative voice.

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   1. Mueda, Memory and Massacre

   Mueda, Memória e Massacre · 1979

   Mozambique's first feature film records the annual communal re-enactment of the 1960 Mueda massacre, in which Portuguese colonial forces gunned down villagers, blending documentary and staged theater. A foundational work of the nation's cinema.

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   2. These Are the Weapons

   Estas São as Armas · 1978

   This documentary from newly independent Mozambique celebrates the liberation struggle and the ideals of the revolution, framing knowledge and unity as the true weapons of the people. A revolutionary-era film.

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   3. Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema

   Kuxa Kanema: O Nascimento do Cinema · 2003

   This documentary tells the story of Mozambique's National Institute of Cinema, founded after independence to film the nation into being, and how the utopian dream of a revolutionary cinema rose and fell. A poignant film-history essay.

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   4. The Time of the Leopards

   O Tempo dos Leopardos · 1985

   Set during Mozambique's war for independence, this drama follows guerrilla fighters battling Portuguese colonial forces in the bush. A revolutionary war film.

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   5. Virgin Margarida

   Virgem Margarida · 2012

   In the wake of Mozambique's independence, sex workers rounded up from the cities are sent to a remote re-education camp to be remade as model citizens, among them an innocent teenager wrongly swept up in the raids. A powerful drama of a revolution's contradictions.

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   6. The Train of Salt and Sugar

   Comboio de Sal e Açucar · 2016

   In 1989, as civil war ravages Mozambique, a battered train crawls along sabotaged tracks between Nampula and Malawi carrying desperate passengers trading salt for sugar, braving ambushes and brutal soldiers. A harrowing, humane wartime drama.

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   7. Redemption

   Resgate · 2019

   A young ex-convict trying to go straight is pushed back toward crime when a bank moves to foreclose on his home, forcing him to plot against a ruthless gangster. A tense Mozambican crime drama.

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   8. Disobedience

   Desobediência · 2002

   In this Mozambican documentary re-enacted by the real people at its heart, Rosa, a peasant woman from the Chimoio region, is blamed by her late husband’s family for his death after she refused to obey him, and submits to both a traditional healer’s ordeal and a court of law to clear her name and keep her children. A haunting fusion of documentary and drama.

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   9. Mabata Bata

   2017

   In rural Mozambique, a young cattle-herding boy dreams of going to school even as the shadow of landmines and civil war hangs over his village, in a magic-realist tale drawn from a Mia Couto story. A lyrical, poignant drama.

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    10. The Great Bazaar

    O Grande Bazar · 2006

    Two boys from different worlds meet and forge a friendship amid the bustle of a sprawling African market, learning to survive by their wits. A warm Mozambican coming-of-age drama.