When Mozambican filmmaker Rogerio Manjate saw a call for scripts for films no longer than three-minutes-long, he knew what to do: lop off the first scene of a documentary he was working on and submit it.

The final product — a $7000 two-day shoot titled 'I love you' — picked up awards in Scotland and South Africa and has toured festival circuits from Barcelona to Sao Paulo.

In the cash-strapped Mozambican film industry, newcomer Manjate is following a long-established trend of using aid agency commissions and foreign-funded projects to make distinctive films.

"We transform them," the inaugural Africa in Motion festival award winner told AFP. "We respond to the clients but we also do our film."

Mozambican films have picked up accolades at Cannes and Biarritz but the industry is nearly solely funded from outside, with projects commissioned by aid agencies making up a sizeable chunk of work.

"We were relying on the money from the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) so we decided: well, let's use our skills as directors and try to do different things.

"Not just sit the person in front of the camera and ask some questions. Let's give it a different feeling," said Karl Sousa of Ebano Multimedia.

"We are actually doing a documentary but... it looks like we're doing a fiction film."

No government support

At independence in 1975, the Marxist-led government of Samora Machel assigned a weekly 10 minute news wrap which would start at the same time in cinemas countrywide every Saturday.

But now government offers no support to film, not even propaganda, according to Gabriel Mondlane of the Mozambican Filmmakers Association (Amocine).

"Government is no longer interested," he told AFP. "We're still suffering from the type of philosophy which says film is luxury."

The industry's main source of funds is through Fonds Images Afrique, a French government grant.

The results are usually premiered at the country's annual film festival and at the French Cultural Centre, but films can often end up on the shelf after a debut screening.

Troubled times

It's a situation that makes Cannes Special Jury winner Orlando Mesquita burst into good-natured laughter at the use of "industry" and "Mozambican film" in the same sentence.

"Samora understood the full power of film. It was the main way the regime found to discuss its ideology. After he died, we lost everything," said Mesquita who owns an educational production company to survive.

Foreign filmmakers also struggle there. Mozambique has attracted attention from international crews in search of the war-torn images offered by Maputo's battered, lushly green streets.

Hollywood blockbusters 'Blood Diamond', 'Ali' and 'The Interpreter' — respectively starring Leonardo di Caprio, Will Smith and Nicole Kidman — have all been shot in Mozambique.

"The problem is that in Mozambique unfortunately nobody is taking care of the film industry," said Joao Ribeiro, who is working on a new €1.3-million adaptation of a novel by local author Mia Couto backed by Portuguese investors.

Mozambique has no clear policies for foreign filmmakers, which makes work difficult, said Ribeiro the local producer of 'Blood Diamond' which filmed there for six months with a crew of 600.

"When they did 'Lord of the War' they contacted me and said do you want to do this with us. I said I can't it's too big... all these planes and military scenes. Not because it's difficult but because of the process of getting authorisation."

"It's not easy to deal with the authorities," he added.

But there are benefits to working in Mozambique, Ribeiro concedes.

"In one way you can do things here that you will never do outside this country. When we did 'Blood Diamond,' we closed downtown for a week. Do that in London or wherever — you can't."

AFP