Flame 1996

Ingrid Sinclair / Zimbabwe 1996 / 1h28m / 15 / DCP

Flame

Synopsis

Flame was the first Zimbabwean film since independence and is a tribute to the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army's female guerrillas. In the 1970s in former Rhodesia, the people stand up against the oppressors. As war reaches rural villages, friends Florence and Nyasha run away from home to join the fighters in Mozambican training camps. Both adopt revolutionary identities: Nyasha becomes Liberty, while Florence brands herself Flame. Flame created controversy in Zimbabwe, as the realistic depiction of the treatment of women in the liberation army was seen as anti-nationalist. The film also serves as a critique for post-independence Zimbabwe, and Mugabe’s rule.

This event was part of AiM’s focus on Africa’s Lost Classics, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).  


Distributor: 

ZIMMEDIA

17 Cotham Side
Bristol
BS6 5TP

+44(0)1179246129

info@zimmedia.com

 

Screenings:

Africa in Motion | Glasgow Women’s Library | 2 Nov 2017

Temple of Peace | Cardiff, Wales | 9 Nov 2017

Melbourne International Film Festival | Melbourne, Australia | 15 aug 2018


Flame trailer


The first feature film by Ingrid Sinclair, produced by Joel Phiri and Simon Bright, and the first to be set during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. Shot in Zimbabwe with an entirely Zimbabwean cast, the film is based on the accounts of women who joined the liberation war.

“Flame is undoubtedly a revelation for African film, the continent’s women film-makers, and the task of retelling history with passion rather than plaintiveness that is so often the case with South African film and television.”
(24 April 1997 Mail & Guardian)