Hybridizations of fiction and reality in the work of Licínio Azevedo. Three paradigms: A colheita do diabo (1988), A arvore dos ancestros (1996) and Desobediencia (2002)

Abstract

The hybridization between fiction and reality in fictional film is a worldwide trend. Challenging the limits of fiction and documentary, erasing their lines of separation, implies a stylistic, narrative and ideological exercise that 21st century filmmakers have taken as a priority field of experimentation. Kiarostami, Loach, Dardenne Brothers, Sokurov, Kaurismaki walk this path. A path that African cinemas, since their birth in the 1960s, have naturally taken due to the production conditions, the idiosyncrasies of their filmmakers, their training and an ideological will to commit to reality that has led them, time and again, to challenge those limits. In this panorama, stand outs Mozambican cinematography and its main filmmaker, Licinio Azevedo. Originally documentary filmmaker, Azevedo evolved towards fiction, always maintaining links with reality, as part of his social and ideological commitment to the Mozambican people and its viewers. Here, we study at some of his fictional works, the most stimulating from this frontier approach between fiction and non-fiction, to reveal a filmmaker who should be among the most interesting on the continent, in a history of cinema in constant evolution.