Housing in Mozambique – plurality in mozambican cinema

Abstract

‘Housing’ still represents a topic that seems to be largely unaddressed in relation to film. Although Düllo (2008, p. 358) states in his article Wohnen im Film that the respective living situations of film characters are decisive for their localisation in life and action i.e. their anchoring in the diegetic levels, the specific design of living space has so far been regarded as of little importance. Yet, it is precisely aspects such as the localisation of the protago nists in the living space as well as the individual design of these spaces - the spacing (DÜLLO, 2008, p. 369f) - that provide essential information about the way in which they find themselves embedded culturally, socially, psychologically and by way of identity within the film. In this way, film viewers gain significant insights into the characters’ lives and development. Besides the situational insights into the life of the various individuals represented, films make concrete and visible statements about the cultural contexts of the characters, regions, spaces and countries shown by means of the staging of living situations. Films depict different housing cultures. Thus, depicted flats, houses, places and non-places (AUGÉ, 1994), i.e. all the different ‘living’ situations medialised in films, represent the diverse cultural and geopolitical contexts in which the film characters reside. The staged living spaces allow conclusions to be drawn about individual or collective living cultures, i.e. about the status that a living space carries in various cultures and the possibilities of having, maintaining, designing or not having living space.

---

Original in German.