By Rebecca Kumar
Sleepwalking Land
Brief Synopsis
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Muidinga is a dreamer. The boy's greatest desire is to find the family he lost while his country, Mozambique, was in civil war. In a diary he finds beside a body, he reads the story of a woman on a ship who is searching for her son. Muidinga is convinced that he is the lost son. He goes after her wi
Cast & Crew
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Teresa Prata
Director
Nick Lauro Teresa
Aladino Jasse
Helio Fumo
Ilda Gonzalez
Issuf Mohamed
Film Details
Also Known As
Terra Sonambula
MPAA Rating
Genre
Adaptation
Drama
Foreign
Release Date
2008
Production Company
Arte; Marfilmes; Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Zdf)
Distribution Company
ZON Lusomundo (now part of NOS Audiovisuals)
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 37m
Synopsis
Muidinga is a dreamer. The boy's greatest desire is to find the family he lost while his country, Mozambique, was in civil war. In a diary he finds beside a body, he reads the story of a woman on a ship who is searching for her son. Muidinga is convinced that he is the lost son. He goes after her with the help of the old and wise Tuahir. The road they travel along is enchanted: it knows their desires and moves them from one place to another, making sure they survive to reach the longed for sea.
Director
Teresa Prata
Director
Cast
Nick Lauro Teresa
Aladino Jasse
Helio Fumo
Ilda Gonzalez
Issuf Mohamed
Aron Silva Bila
Ernesto Lemos Macuacua
Filimone Meigos
Laura Soveral
Ana Magaia
Helen Muguambe
Tania Adelino
Crew
Caroline Adler
Production Designer
Mia Couto
Source Material
Pandora Gagnon Da Cunha Telles
Producer
Dominique Gentil
Director Of Photography
Alex Goretzki
Music
Ana Magaia
Casting
Branko Neskov
Sound Department
Isabel Peres
Costume Designer
Teresa Prata
Screenplay
Paulo Rebelo
Editor
Alvaro Romao
Assistant Director
Camilo De Sousa
Producer
Antonio Da Cunha Telles
Producer
Jacques Witta
Editor
Videos
Hosted Intro
Promo
Film Details
Also Known As
Terra Sonambula
MPAA Rating
Genre
Adaptation
Drama
Foreign
Release Date
2008
Production Company
Arte; Marfilmes; Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Zdf)
Distribution Company
ZON Lusomundo (now part of NOS Audiovisuals)
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 37m
Articles
Sleepwalking Land -
Teresa Prata's feature film adaptation of Mia Couto's book of the same name (Terra Sonambula in Portuguese) is a cinematic poem for Mozambique, which was ravaged by postcolonial civil war from 1977 to 1992. Sleepwalking Land (2007) beautifully highlights how the country's war survivors are like somnambulists, deliriously dreaming of alternate realities to cope with their traumas. The coming-of-age plot follows 11-year-old Muidinga (Nick Laura Teresa who was cast just three days before filming began) as he wanders the countryside with a storytelling elder, Tuahir (Aladino Jasse), who saved him from an untimely death in a refugee camp. Muidinga yearns to find his mother and recall his past, but he suffers from amnesia. When he and Tuahir take shelter in a burned and abandoned bus, he discovers a diary with a narrative that seems to be a rejoinder to his own. As he reads, the film folds in a parallel story-within-the-story, flashing back to a young man, Kindzu (Helio Fumo), who, having lost his own family to the war, is in search for Gaspar, the son of Farida (Ilda Gonzalez), a woman he has met and with whom he has fallen in love. Muidinga is convinced that Farida is his mother and, as he turns the pages of the diary, the desolate landscape that he roves magically transforms from dry to lush, and the two storylines begin to converge. Despite the film's fantastical elements, Prata intentionally departed from some of the magical realist elements of the book, aiming for its reversal: "supra-realism," telling fairytales in a realistic way. Yet for its stylistic solemnity, it remains hopeful - even more so than the book - especially the end. "My intention," Prata explained in an interview, "was to make Mozambicans look less sadly at their own history, or maybe to look at their traumatic history more poetically. My film is not as sad as the book's ending because I believe in the future of Mozambique." Sleepwalking Land took nearly eight years to complete and benefitted from Prata's childhood memories of living in Mozambique during the Portuguese Colonial War for independence.
By Rebecca Kumar
By Rebecca Kumar
Sleepwalking Land -
Teresa Prata's feature film adaptation of Mia Couto's book of the same name (Terra Sonambula in Portuguese) is a cinematic poem for Mozambique, which was ravaged by postcolonial civil war from 1977 to 1992. Sleepwalking Land (2007) beautifully highlights how the country's war survivors are like somnambulists, deliriously dreaming of alternate realities to cope with their traumas. The coming-of-age plot follows 11-year-old Muidinga (Nick Laura Teresa who was cast just three days before filming began) as he wanders the countryside with a storytelling elder, Tuahir (Aladino Jasse), who saved him from an untimely death in a refugee camp. Muidinga yearns to find his mother and recall his past, but he suffers from amnesia. When he and Tuahir take shelter in a burned and abandoned bus, he discovers a diary with a narrative that seems to be a rejoinder to his own. As he reads, the film folds in a parallel story-within-the-story, flashing back to a young man, Kindzu (Helio Fumo), who, having lost his own family to the war, is in search for Gaspar, the son of Farida (Ilda Gonzalez), a woman he has met and with whom he has fallen in love. Muidinga is convinced that Farida is his mother and, as he turns the pages of the diary, the desolate landscape that he roves magically transforms from dry to lush, and the two storylines begin to converge. Despite the film's fantastical elements, Prata intentionally departed from some of the magical realist elements of the book, aiming for its reversal: "supra-realism," telling fairytales in a realistic way. Yet for its stylistic solemnity, it remains hopeful - even more so than the book - especially the end. "My intention," Prata explained in an interview, "was to make Mozambicans look less sadly at their own history, or maybe to look at their traumatic history more poetically. My film is not as sad as the book's ending because I believe in the future of Mozambique." Sleepwalking Land took nearly eight years to complete and benefitted from Prata's childhood memories of living in Mozambique during the Portuguese Colonial War for independence.
By Rebecca Kumar
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in Portugal May 8, 2008
Released in United States January 14, 2009
Released in United States Winter January 14, 2009
Based on the novel "Terra Sonambula" by Mia Couto; published by European Schoolbooks January 1, 1999.
Feature directorial debut for Teresa Prata.
Shown at Montreal World Film Festival (Focus on World Cinema) August 23-September 3, 2007.
Beta-to-35mm
color
Dolby Digital
dialogue Portuguese, subtitled English
rtg MPAA NONE
Released in United States January 14, 2009 (New York City)
Released in United States Winter January 14, 2009
Released in Portugal May 8, 2008
