INADELSO COSSA, Mozambique, 2024
Synopsis:
Immersed in Mozambique’s intricate history, I’m compelled to unravel the narrative woven into the film “The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder.” Returning to my grandmother Maria’s village, I’m driven by a personal quest to expose the untold stories of my childhood during the civil war.
This film, a sensory exploration of personal and collective memory, originates from my childhood vacations amid the civil war’s paradox. A rebel aIack, concealed by my grandmother as fireworks, becomes the catalyst for my cinematic endeavor—an aIempt to break the silence enveloping post-civil-war Mozambique
Maria, once a storyteller, now baIles Alzheimer’s, blurring the lines between truth and fiction. In her village, echoes of a former rebel mirror the haunting presence of perpetrators and victims, intertwining day and night, reality and imagination. The ghosts of war that still imhabits the former rebel are possesing the presence.
Motivated by the need to dismantle societal denial, the film seeks to unveil authentic stories obscured by fiction, as I return to Maria’s village armed with cinematic tools. Challenging conventional aesthetics, the film becomes a sensorial journey, symbolized by Moises, the boom operator. The audience is prompted to listen closely, transcending the visual to experience the haptic nature of memory—the smell of gunpowder, the touch of suppressed emotions
In this dance between truth and fiction, memory and forge Ong, “The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder” stands as my testament to the resilience of human memory. I navigate the labyrinth of my past, and use cinema for a collective endeavor to reclaim lost fragments of history and confront the haunting ghosts persisting in the darkness of societal silence
Director’s biography and filmography
Inadelso Cossa is a film director, producer and DOP, member of the (AMPAS) Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science since 2020. Founder of 16mmFILMES a production company focus on creative documentary and feature films. his films address themes such as post-colonial memory, post-Civil War trauma, silent voices and collective amnesia in Mozambique. The unofficial history of his country is almost always the vehicle of his cinema where the director positions himself on a personal perspective. His first feature-length documentary: A Memory in Three Acts made a world premiere at the festival IDFA – International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The film was selected for Durban film Mart 2014, and Locarno Open Doors 2014. Won the Jury Special Award at the Zanzibar Int. Film Festival in 2018 and the Flemish Commission for Unesco at Afrika film Festival Leuven, Belgium 2020.s
Inadelso Cossa was invited to participate as a jury in several festivals such IDFA 2018, Doc Sheffield 2018, Golden Tree Int. Documentary film festival 2019, World Press Photo 2020 and documentary programmer at Durban international film Festival 2023. Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund pre-selection committee 2024 and Sheffield Meet market preselection committee 2024. His second feature film The Nights Still smell of gunpowder made a world premiere at Berlinale Forum 2024 and international premiere at CPH: DOX 2024, The film won the special juri Prize at Olhar de Cinema – Quritiba International Film Festival 2024,