24th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films

VIRGIN MARGARIDA

Directed by Licinio Azevedo

Mozambique, 2012 , 90 min.

In 1975, having achieved independence from Portugal after a long and bitter war, the new revolutionary Mozambican government sweeps the streets of Maputo of all prostitutes. These women are sent to camps deep in the countryside where they are “re-educated” to become “new women.” Among them is 16-year-old Margarida, who is mistaken for one of the prostitutes and rounded up with the other women. The film is the story of women bounded by adversity and serves as Licinio Azevedo’s dramatic and inspiring elegy to the insurgent spirit of women across nations, histories, and cultures.

In Portuguese with English subtitles.