We Shall Win: Yugoslav Film Cooperation with FRELIMO

Abstract

This paper deals with Yugoslav-Mozambican film cooperation and the role Filmske novosti played in the anti-colonial struggle and in the relationship with the FRELIMO movement in particular. Yugoslav film cooperation with Africa began in the 1950s and peaked in the 1960s, when the Yugoslav Film Weeks were organized in the newly liberated African countries and Filmske novosti made their first documentaries in Algeria, Mali, Tanzania, Guinea and Mozambique. Film cooperation with Algeria and Mozambique and the support for such guerrilla movements as the FLN and FRELIMO was the climax of Yugoslav film solidarity with the anti-colonial struggle. The Yugoslav film We Shall Win (Venceremos), by Dragutin Popovic, had an especially relevant role as the first documentary about the liberated regions in Mozambique and the military and political role of FRELIMO.