Le Train de Sel et de Sucre

Saw this film at the African Film Festival here in Bayreuth.

The film focuses on a group of passengers and soldiers taking a train journey through war torn Mozambique in the 80's. Among the passengers are many women who are buying salt and sugar from areas where they are cheap and selling them where they are rare commodities - this is where the title comes from.

Interspersed with short guerrilla style tactics the film builds tension throughout as well as between the soldiers and passengers and this is where much of the drama actually occurs. One never knows when the next act of violence will occur and who it will come from. Other scenes include a gruesome impaled head as a warning sign, a woman giving birth during a fire fight, and the corpse of an enemy commander being strapped to the front of the train while village children through stones at it.

This is certainly a film worth watching minus some pacing issues. A worthy contender for the Academy Award!

I read the screenplay of this motion picture for Ibermedia long ago, and it was very good. It took me quite a while to find a good copy (6GB, which I did not ask for!) and had the same impression, that it is a very well written movie.

While the plot revolves around a dangerous trip through a territory under guerrilla control, with soldiers protecting the travellers and fighting the enemy, tension is sparse, as the story simultaneously covers different aspects: the romance of a nurse and a sergeant, the military's sexual abuse of the travelling women, the mysterious commander who relies on his religious belief to take decisions (not explicitly, but the ikure --an instrument that Santería priests use during divination sessions and other ceremonies-- that the commander has all the time and frequently moves, makes it evident), t, the spies or traitors that can be aboard the train... and then the brief war scenes. The subplots and details contribute to make a fine canvas of civil war in Mozambique, during the 1980s.

However, from the "mise-en-screen" point of view, as I watched the resulting movie from the script I read, I felt that somehow it lacked a bit of kinetic brio. Nevertheless, the general acting is good, the running time is precise, and the cinematography by Frédéric Serve is impressive, so all help to make watching the movie a fine experience.