Ambivalent transnationality: Luso-African co-productions after independence (1988–2010)

Abstract

In the sequence of its adhesion to the European Community in 1986 and in search for a place in an increasingly globalized film market, Portugal established a vast amount of transnational cinematographic partnerships with the Luso-African countries Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau. The partnerships, which have resulted in twenty co-productions so far, have also had a profound meaning for the discussion of colonialism and post-colonialism that cannot be overemphasized. Since the aim of this article is to give a general overview of the Luso-African feature film landscape, it discusses the films in a resumed fashion within the context of the four co-producing PALOP (Países de Língua Oficial Portuguesa – Countries with Portuguese as Official Language). According to my understanding of transnationality as ambivalent, I will try to comprehend how the co-productions negotiate the elements of national and transnational identity. Are they capable of holding the post-colonial tensions? Are new and multilateral perspectives that confront outdated discourses the exception or the rule?