by Licínio Azevedo
Mozambique / 2002 / 52mins / Documentary / Portuguese
In central Mozambique lies the Corridor of Death, a long-distance trucking route, where more than 30% of the population are HIV+. Shot mostly at night, the film charts a series of interwoven stories about the lives of women who wait for the arrival of truck drivers at an overnight trucking station. Three groups of sex workers, the Calamities, the Students and the Founding Members, vie for business, disappearing into the drivers' trucks, which are cheaper than renting rooms. In this world, even though condoms are distributed free by activists, you can earn more by having unprotected sex.
Licínio Azevedo
Licínio Azevedo (born in Porto Alegre, Brazil) is an independent filmmaker and co-founder of the Mozambican film production company, Ebano Multimedia. In 1977, he was invited by filmmaker Rui Guerra to join the National Institute of Cinema (INC) in Mozambique, and soon after embarked on a prolific career as a documentary filmmaker. He has directed and produced many award-winning documentaries, which have been screened at numerous international festivals. Tchuma Tchato (1997) won a Panda Award at the Wildscreen Festival in the UK in 1998 and was chosen as a finalist at the Third International Environmental Film Festival in Pretoria in 1997. Azevedo has produced and directed several feature films. He is also a writer and his collection of stories on the Mozambican War of Independence formed the basis of Mozambique's first full-length feature film. Virgem Margarida, his 2012 drama, won 2 awards at the Amiens International Film Festival. His 2016 drama, The Train of Salt and Sugar, was nominated for numerous awards and won Best Director at Cairo International Film Festival and the Tanit d'Or for Best Film and Narrative Feature Film at Carthage Film Festival. Learn More