What is 'banzo' in the context of the film Banzo?

'Banzo' is a deep homesickness experienced by enslaved people on plantations, leading to severe psychological distress and even death.

How did homesickness affect the plantation in 'Banzo'?

The profound homesickness, 'banzo,' caused servants to die or commit suicide, destabilizing the plantation's labor system.

Who is the white European doctor in Margarida Cardoso's film Banzo?

The doctor, Afonso, is brought to the plantation to cure the ailing servants and maintain the plantation's operations amidst the crisis.

Home / Arts and Entertainment / Homesickness Fuels Plantation Rebellion

Homesickness Fuels Plantation Rebellion

5 Dec

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Summary

A doctor documents brutal slavery on a plantation island.
Homesickness, 'banzo,' dismantles the plantation system.
Servants gain agency by threatening the plantation system.

Set in 1907 on a plantation island off the African coast, 'Banzo' depicts a system on the brink of collapse. Servants began dying from starvation or taking their own lives, driven by a profound homesickness known as 'banzo.' A European doctor was brought in to keep the plantation functioning, enlisting a photographer to visually record the harsh conditions.

The film delves into the potent force of homesickness, showing how this deep yearning for home could dismantle the brutal system of forced labor. The plantation's survival depended on its workers, and their internal suffering became an unexpected threat to its very existence.

Director Margarida Cardoso, whose childhood in Mozambique informed her work, aimed to explore the ambiguous agency of characters within such oppressive structures. Ultimately, the servants, through their desperate resistance and self-destruction, asserted a form of control over their own lives.