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Mosquito Mosquito

A film by João Nuno Pinto with João Nunes Monteiro, Sebastian Jehkul, Filipe Duarte, Josefina Massango

Dreaming of great adventures and of standing up for his homeland, a young Portuguese man enlists in the army during World War I and is sent to the front line in Mozambique, Africa. Left behind by his platoon, he sets out on a grueling trek across the mystic Makua native land, walking for over a thousand kilometers, in search of his dream.

2019 | Portugal, France, Brazil, Mozambique | M/14 | 122 min | Drama | Feature film

Festivals and awards

IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam

Official Selection - Big Screen Competition
Opening Film


Prémios Goya

Nominated for Best Ibero-American Film


35 Mostra de Valencia - Cinema del Mediterrani (Spain)

Winner - Best Photography (Adolpho Veloso)

Winner - Best Soundtrack (Justin Melland)


43 Mostra Internacional de Cinema - São Paulo International Film Festival (Brazil)

Critics Prize in the International Film category 


34th Braunschweig International Film Festival (Germany)

Special Jury Mention


Sophia Awards 2021

Best Main Actor – João Nunes Monteiro

Best Supporting Actor – Filipe Duarte (posthumous)

Best costume design – Lucha D’Orey

Best characterisation and special effects – Mário Gaspar, Nuno Esteves “Blue”, Pedro Vercesi

Best Sound – Francisco Veloso, Gita Cerveira, Philippe Grivel, Tiago Raposinho

Best Editing – Gustavo Giani


GDA Foundation Actors Awards – João Nunes Monteiro, New Talent Award


Burgas Film Festival (Bulgaria) - Special Mention From the Jury
Gröningen Film Festival (Netherland)

Bengaluru Film Festival (India)

Geneva Film Festival (Swiss) 

Lucca Film Festival (Italy)

Scanorama Film Festival (Lituania)

Split Film Festival (Croatia)

Tapei International Film Festival (Taiwan)

2020 Hainan Film Festival (China)

Goya Awards 2021 (Spain) - Portuguese Candidate

EnergaCAMERIMAGE – The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Toruń, Poland)

Reviews

«Premiering at the 2020 Rotterdam film festival, João Nuno Pinto’s MOSQUITO is an provocative, if derivative, odyssey into the heart of colonial darkness.»

Jorge Mourinha, The Flickering Wall

«João Nuno Pinto's Portuguese World-War-One drama tackles Portugal's colonial shady past in Africa.»

Ard Vijn, Screen Anarchy

«Rotterdam’s opening film is a fever dream account of a young Portuguese soldier’s experiences in 1917 Mozambique.»

Screen Daily

«Pinto crafts a stark depiction of the morally grey, crafting a character that demonstrates every facet of the human condition; he’s flawed and easily led, yet also masterfully empathetic.»

Nathanial Eker, UK Film Review

Cast and crew

João Nunes Monteiro

Miguel Moreira

João Lagarto
Filipe Duarte
Alfredo Brito
Miguel Borges
Cesário Monteiro
Joāo Vicente
Manuel João Vieira
Nuno Preto
Aquirasse Nipita
Messias João
Mário Mabjaia
Sebastian Jehkul
Josefina Massango
Hermelinda Simela
Maria Clotilde
Gigliola Zacara
Gezebel Mocovela

with the special participation of
Ana Magaia and Camané


Directed by João Nuno Pinto
Written by Fernanda Polacow and Gonçalo Waddington
Original ideia by João Nuno Pinto
Cinematography - Adolpho Veloso
Art direction - Nuno Gabriel Mello
Film editing - Gustavo Giani
Music by Justin Melland
Sound - Gita Cerveira, Tiago Raposinho, Matthieu Deniau
Costume design - Lucha D`Orey
Makeup - Nuno Miguel Esteves
Casting - Ricardo Moura
Produced by Paulo Branco
Co-producers - Ana Pinhão Moura and Mario Peixoto
Executive producers - Ana Pinhão Moura and Enrico Saraiva


A Leopardo Filmes (Portugal) production
In coproduction with
Alfama Films Production (France)
APM Produções (Portugal)
Delicatessen Films (Brazil)
Mapiko Filmes (Mozambique)
With the financial support of

ICA Instituto Cinema e Audiovisual
RTP Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
L’Aide Aux Cinemas du Monde
CNC Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée - Institut Francais
L’aide à la Coproduction D’œuvres Cinématographiques Franco-Portugaises
Creative Europe Programme Media Of The European Union
Programa Ibermedia

and the support of

INAC Instituto Nacional Audiovisual e Cinema


MINI-SERIES WITH 3 EPISODES VERSION:
a Leopardo Filmes production
in co-production with APM Produções
associate producer Delicatessen Filmes (Brazil)
with financial support from ICA and RTP
and the support of INAC (Mozambique)


International sales and festivals: Alfama Films

Director's biography

João Nuno Pinto is a Portuguese director, born in 1969 at Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. He moved to Portugal at the age of 5, shortly after the independence of the former Portuguese colony. In his latest years he has lived in Lisbon and São Paulo.


With a consolidated international career in advertising, in 2010 João Nuno Pinto premiered America, his first feature, an ironic look at contemporary Portugal through the eyes of illegal immigrants. The film was acclaimed in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. It was selected and awarded by several film festivals around the world.


Mosquito, his latest film, co-written by his wife, the screenwriter Fernanda Polacow, and Gonçalo Waddington, is inspired by João Nuno Pinto’s grandfather's story in Africa during World War I and took almost 7 years to prepare.
 
Director's filmography:
Mosquito (2019)
Don’t Swim (short film, 2015)
America (2010)
Skype Me (short film, 2008)

Intentions note

"Reality is not in leaving or arriving: it comes to us halfway through the journey."

(Guimarães Rosa, Brazilian writer)


In 1917, aged 17, my grandfather landed in Mozambique along with the 4th Portuguese Expeditionary Company, in order to defend the Portuguese ex-colony against the German threat. Like so many other European soldiers in Africa during World War I, they had to walk hundreds of kilometers every day, facing hard deprivations, diseases, hunger and thirst. The only difference is that he did it all by himself, completely alone, looking for the war and for his dreams of glory. Although Mosquito is inspired by my grandfather’s journey in Africa, no one really knows what he went through during his long and solitary journey. This is where fiction and the meaning I want to convey the narrative comes in.
 
The way we Europeans and others still deal with African issues today reflects our colonial past and the long years of indoctrination of a certain paternalistic ideal about Africa. Mosquito uses a history of the past to confront us with choices of the present. Through the story of young Zacarias we are confronted with the horror of the war, and the subjugation of African people by the Europeans, through colonial domination. The film gives us a little more insight into a forgotten piece of our history, World War I in Africa, forcing us to reflect on a much longer period, when it was our right to subjugate and “civilize” other people who we conveniently considered to be inferior.
 
Private Zacarias’ lonely journey searching for his platoon is the backbone of the story. Through its clear references to classicalGreek narrative, Mosquito navigates within the genre of an epic film, which makes it universal in its dialectic. Yet, it is not merely concerned with using the genre's classical codes, but also a language and a narrative approach that breaks away from conventions, meeting a more authorial universe. In a way, the film's unique approach dissociates it from a classical form and embraces a more raw and contemporary narrative, putting us closer to the (less and less) innocent look of the young soldier.
 
The film shows a kind of fluctuation between reality and fantasy, past and present, the fabrication and the everyday. The situations may seem fantastic but they are real. The hallucinations may seem real but they are built by a troubled mind. And its remembrances appear like scattered fragments of the memory. The idea of the reality versus the imaginary is important because of its closeness with the creation of history and war itself. That is part of Mosquito’s narrative: exploring the imaginary space left blurred by the historical amnesia.

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