KU HANDZA by André Guiomar

CREDITS

Directed by:
André Guiomar

WITH
Benjamin Vilanculo
Eulália da Silva
Filimone Muchongo

Production Manager:
Milton Manhenje

Cinematography:
André Guiomar

Sound Director:
Rui Namburete, Hermen Macamo

Editing:
Miguel da Santa

Sound and Mixing:
Maurício D'Órey

Color Correction:
Tiago Carvalho

Original Music:
Tiago Correia-Paulo

Painting:
Phambi

Graphic Design:
João da Fonseca

Producers:
Jacinta Barros, Rui Simões, André Guiomar, Luís Costa

Co-Production:
Olhar de Ulisses

Production:
Real Ficção

SYNOPSIS

Ku handza is an expression in the Changana (Tsonga) language that describes a chicken searching for food. It is also used by Mozambicans as a metaphor for daily survival.
This film follows three main stories. The first is that of Benjamin, who tries to raise money through informal exchanges to organize a birthday party for his son. His life is dictated by monetary fluctuations decided by people, markets, and events that he will never understand.
Eulalia, the second character, is a mother of six children and gives birth to a new premature baby. A few days later, she has to return to her job at a landfill, the last bastion of what society considers dispensable. The last is Filimone, who visits his family between war missions, trying to be present in the growth of his three daughters. A war on the northern border with Tanzania, justified both by religious reasons and by international interests in valuable mineral lands. Three different stories that seem never to intersect, but which describe a chameleon-like country in a kaleidoscopic narrative. A country full of voiceless, forgotten, and politically misgoverned people. Authentic heroes of survival, who blend resignation, faith, and willpower. As an old African proverb says, "when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." The human species seems never to escape its survival mode.