The Murmuring Coast

The film is shot in exotic locations, the characters are strong but they don't leave any impact on me. The director i think was little confused between a documentary and film. The story is weak, not so gripping or sentimental as it could have been. It had all the potential to be a good love story but lost in the waves. The way the characters were handled is good, right from the lady in the kitchen to the leading lady. The theme is also fine, but its not so clear about the marriage which actually is very important in the context of the film. I really liked the climax of the movie it was so shuttle and cheers to the director for not dramatizing it.

Mozambique in the 1960s began its struggle for independence in earnest, having being colonised by Portugal in the 16th century. The 'terrorists' were FRELIMO, who formed the first government in 1975, but not before a protracted war with the Rhodesian-backed RENAMO, leading to over a million deaths. The early days of this uprising are examined through Portuguese eyes, as Evita (Beatriz Batarda) arrives from Europe to marry Luis (Filipe Duarte). She is a headstrong young woman who finds herself at first lost and confused in this strange land which is changing as she tries to come to terms with her life there. He is a soldier with a unit whose task is to wipe out the 'insurgents'.

During Luis' expeditions he tries to insist that his bride stays inside the home in Maputo, the capitol, as he fears attacks from locals. She refuses to live in purdah, though, and moves to a hotel, enjoying the city and beach by herself. She finds a friend, in Helena (Monica Calle), who has accepted subordination; they form a close relationship, and Helena reveals secrets about Luis' previous army experiences - more than Evita would rather have wanted to know. Once, on leave, Luis and his boss, Helena's husband, take the girls on a shooting trip where their complete loss of respect for life, and particularly Luis' desire to impress his superior, are demonstrated in their incontinent spending of bullets.

Evita also strikes up a close relationship with a journalist (Luis Sarmento), who explains that it's dangerous for newspapers to be as literal as she would like, in the telling of what really is going on around them. Her awakening already caused upset at the dinner table when she had the temerity to suggest that it might be alright for the Mozambicans to get their country back after so long. Meanwhile, mysterious poisonings all over town and spontaneous attacks by Portuguese residents against the 'niggers'. These are not sub-plots, there to lift the story from pulp-fiction level; they are part of a complexity, an echo of the chaos the country as a whole would have been suffering.

Comparisons can be made to other films, like The Quiet American, or Indochine; and to other post-colonial countries like Iraq (and Maputo, with its comfortable but fragile insularity, could be Tel Aviv). This is its own kind of film, though, and the screenplay includes warm novelistic drifts from the novel (of the same name) by Lidia Jorge. In voice-over, the older Evita talks to her younger, active self, musing on what could have been or what was. Throughout, the minimal soundtrack by Bernardo Sassetti is more ambient or emphatic than straight music, and is inseparable from the visuals. Lisa Hagstrand's camera-work subtly acts in a similar way: Evita is always shot against bright light and breezes, while Helena is framed by mahogany and deep shadow, and the colour is slightly washed-out; almost sepia. The fact that 'A costa dos murmurios' defies easy classification should guarantee a long life. CLIFF HANLEY

A costa do murmurios (The Murmuring Coast) is a striking debut film by Portuguese director Margarida Cardoso who also happens to be an acclaimed director of many award winning documentary films.Her film is based on an eponymous novel written by acclaimed Portuguese writer Lidia Jorge in 1989.This film is her homage to her childhood days which were spent in a war torn Mozambique.In this film,Cardoso shows us lives of Portuguese soldiers who are waging war against freedom fighters and rebels.They are shown as brutes who would not mind killing innocent civilians.On the one hand it is quite true that "A Costa Do Murmurios" is a film about native people fighting for their independence,on the other hand,it can also be said that it appears more as a film about lonely Portuguese women,their inner worlds,their hollow existences and their fights for their own independence.Beatriz Batarda plays a memorable role of a silly woman who is shielding her idiotic husband.Most of the film is shown through her perspective which is the silent cry of an innocent woman against the ghastly horrors of a senseless war.

Amid the growing tension between the white colonialists and the Africans in the town, a swarm of locusts signals the return of the unsuccessful army, and the story of Evita and Luis ends tragically.

Beatriz Batarda traverses this treacherous moral landscape with reined-in melancholy, though her actions suggest that a bolder Evita must exist inside her. Although Monica Calle is chilling as the humiliated Helena, a prisoner of her own guilt, the performances generally take a back seat to the film's mysterious atmosphere of violence, which is ironically juxtaposed with the beautiful tropical paradise setting.

The grainy geometry of cinematographer Lisa Hagstrand's images, coupled with the sets designed by Ana Vaz and Augusto Mayer, imitate a stylish 1960s look. Bernardo Sassetti underscores the period aesthetic with a medley of sad and romantic tunes, while costume designer Silvia Meireles delights with Evita's vast wardrobe.

A former screenwriter, Margarida Cardoso makes her stunning feature-directing debut with "The Murmuring Coast", a tense drama set in Mozambique during a civil war in the late 1960s. Unusually, it is not the war itself that is the subject of the film, but the events occurring around it, as viewed through the eyes of an officer's young bride. A far cry from the murky minimalism of many Portuguese art films, this film tells an engrossing, albeit upsetting, story about the end of colonialism. The film is rigorously directed, with a tropical, retro aesthetic that leaves a lasting impression. It's well worth a look for adventurous arthouse distributors.

During the war of in-dependency Evita (Beatriz Batarda) moves from Lisbon to Mozambique to marry Luís (Filipe Duarte). She slowly discovers how different and disturbing life is in a country of war and when her husband is send on a military mission she starts to fight loneliness. Over time she finds out more about her husband and Mozambique than she would have imagined in her peaceful European home. Racism, violence, injustice and fatalism make life unbearable... (exploring this "insufferableness" makes it a very Portuguese movie)

Beautifully made for a first time... Margarida Cardoso's first full length movie has rich characters, marvelous images and draws a profound picture of life in Mozambique during its struggle of in-dependency (seen from a Portuguese perspective).