The 1970s in the former Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe: The native people is going against the white suppressors. As the war reaches the most distant villages as well the two friends Florence and Nyasha join the fighters and assume new names: Flame and Liberty. But the war is not as easy as they thought...
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Budget portrayal of Zimbabwe's liberation from white-minority Rhodesian government in the 70s through the lives of two women. Caused an uproar with veterans and censors at the time but petitions from the global film community later saw it restored to a place of pride. Despite numerous int'l awards, v much a domestic cinema feel. Filmed in English but poor sound so hard to follow. The characters express a level of social and feminist conscience more scripted than realistic. The amateurish grade borders on unwatchable, though that comes with its own charm. Most salient aspect is that the present-day independent Zimbabwe that was fought for is hardly shown as a picnic.
Round the World #89: Zimbabwe
link
("Films provenant de pays dont j'avais jamais vu un seul film auparavant" numéro 15: Le Zimbabwe)
Le genre de film difficile à juger, que t'as envie d'aimer pour ce qu'il aborde et ce qu'il est, mais qui est assez laborieux à regarder, et mis en scène comme un spécial télé d'après-midi des années 90, avec une narration très lourde et de l'acting en bois.
À quelques moments je trouvais ça trop pénible, mais tout à coup les derniers quinze minutes, où ces deux femmes qui ont traversées les années de guerre dans une guérilla (au passage, il y a au moins une excellente scène où l'une d'entre elles fait sauter un camion de soldats à coup de bazooka!) font constat…
Films like this are the necessary antidote to the unavoidable revisionist histories we tell ourselves. FLAME is joyous and traumatic. It's a brave in-your-face account of what really happening. And it creates the kind of plurality our narratives need. Women's stories and contributions so often get swept under the rug. So glad this perspective is committed to film.
29th stop on my March Around the World: Zimbabwe.
The first Zimbabwean film since independence to be set in the Rhodesian Bush War, the story begins with two girls from the countryside who run away to join the guerrilla army fighting against white minority rule. Florence, who takes the name Flame, is the focus of the film. Her friend Nyasha, now called Liberty, narrates a lot of the story. Flame is a strong and courageous fighter, who overcomes many personal hardships to rise in the ranks. Liberty prefers to use words to help in the struggle.
The film was controversial as there is rape by a superior officer briefly depicted, but this is not the main focus of the story.…
March Around the World 2018 #6 Zimbabwe
Chosen because I wanted to see more African films from women directors and when I read about this and discovered it’s also about girls/ young women coming of age it seemed like my cup of tea
In a flashback to the mid 1970s Nyasha and Florence live together with Florence’s parents in a small village, Nyasha thinking of little but school and Florence thinking of little but finding a man. This changes when a man reports Florences father to the Rhodesians as revenge for a debt he hadn’t paid so the girls decide to join the rebellion. They take new names (so that their families will be protected if they’re caught) Florence becoming…
We need so many mores stories of liberation like this one. A truly great hidden gem on kanopy.
I’m a lil conflicted by this and have some reservations about showering it with praise, esp considering the well-intentioned but slightly reductive approach of the white director that fails to (read: was never going to be able to) fully account for the intraracial complexities of black gender under colonial rule… but I did genuinely love this. The central focus on black female freedom fighters—LOVED. Some of the shots were quietly stunning. (It was also a really… therapeutic watch, even more so than expected, because it allowed me to make sense of the kind of amorphous grief I feel for all that my people lost to colonialism and in the fight against it. I hadn’t really found a cinematic outlet for…
ZIMBABWEEEEEEE!!! 🇿🇼
Love kanopy, found this movie while scrolling on the platform.
While I wish it delved more into the women who fought in guerrilla warfare for Zimbabwe’s independence (which they won in 1980…so recent!!) I really enjoyed this film bc of my lineage. Seeing Zimbabwe and hearing the diff songs warmed my heart
Sucked that Flame faced SA in the training camp by a so-called Comrade & became a recognized/decorated soldier just to go home & face domestic abuse :( (also note how when she left for the rebel camp and then returned home from fighting the war, she was in a dress, which to me signified domesticity and the role of women as just objects to make babies, clean the home & satisfy the husband with no regards for their needs :/)
Also I was surprised this was in English and not Shona or Ndebele???
FUCK YOU CARL RHODES & COLONIALISM
this film points out how the primary contradiction of women’s subjugation was not addressed, and therefore, was not fully liberating. i don’t know much about Zimbabwean history to sit here and arm chair revolutionize, but there was definitely room for critique of the struggle, and i would not be surprised if Zimbabwe today comprised of a neo-colonial government
There is a great film to be made about the female guerrilla soldiers of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army but unfortunately Flame is not quite it. The cast are all committed and some of the writing is good but ultimately the whole production ends up feeling quite amateurish. I wish they had decided to shoot it with more Zimbabwean languages spoken instead of the often broken English. And the way that rape is treated in the narrative is quite troubling. However there are some strong moments, particularly in the second half but not quite enough to elevate it above disappointing.
"we're just women."
a lot of the filmmaking choices in this felt very 90s (the voice over/the music) which is fine because that's when it was made. the pacing is a little off, but the story beats are very intentional and come together nicely in the end.
when I was a kid, I was either at a cheerleading camp or my sister's soccer game both of which were through the YMCA, and I met a dog that was a rhodesian ridgeback. I didn't know I was autistic then, but I appreciated how literally they named the breed. until today, that experience was my entire knowledge of this region. I'm glad to say that's not true anymore and ashamed it was true for so long.
watched on www.kanopy.com/
random country roulette #14: zimbabwe
dare i point out the strength of female friendship as always! i appreciate the concept of showing women's roles and position in freedom fighting and the subsequent lack of acknowledgment for their strength and contribution but i think it could have been treated with more nuance. i didn't realize until after that the director is a white woman even if zimbabwean, and that could be why it feels disjointed, more like one random frame taken under the macroscope (haha, get it, it's not nuanced enough) when there's hundreds of interrelated frames too... enjoyed act 1 the most which shortly narrated some facts featuring documented photos and introduced the village dynamics but past the unaddressed rape? lost my interest mostly.
