ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an analysis of two films, Horse Money and Virgin Margarida. Both films take issue with decolonization and revolution as a fundamental change that puts history on the path toward a progressive future. Pedro Costa’s and Licinio Azevedo’s representation of the postcolonial Lusophone space is characterized by remnants of colonial traumas and tensions. In Costa’s most recent work, his proposition is all the more ambitious; he dusts off the Carnation Revolution archive in order to explore the historical moment from a subaltern, postcolonial, and (im)migrant perspective. The mode of tragedy allows to reframe anti-colonial historical narratives as ‘tragic suffering rather than one of revolutionary heroism’ is understood. FRELIMO state propaganda created and fixated on two principal figures as ideological enemies of the revolution: the Xiconhoca and the prostitutes. Azevedo’s film takes issue with ‘FRELIMO’s post-independence colonial hangover’ and poses new inquiries about political projects that set out to eradicate the past.
