After ten years of production, the trailer for fledgling Mozambican production house FX Lda Animation Studio's very first feature film has finally been released — a project being hailed as the first animated feature film ever to be made in Mozambique, by Mozambicans.
"Os Pestinhas", or "The Brats", starts off in Tete, a northern Mozambican province, where the Brats team is selected for the finals of an offroad racing competition. But then one of the team discovers that another team member's grandmother has been poisoned, and can only be healed by the medicine of a rare Mozambican plant.
It sees them set off on a wild adventure to find the plant, save granny's life, and prrevent the loss of something else very valuable to them.
"By the end of 2010, my team and I had the idea of creating our own characters, with the intention of producing educational material that was not tedious ... We thought we could pass these messages on in a more interesting and appealing way through animation," says the studio's founder, Nildo Essa.
With sets made, characters developed and storyline in place, it looks like the end is in sight for this promising project, which has been self-funded since its inception. But all that's left is a coproduction partner who can help the small team realise their dream, which they hope to complete by mid-2019.
If you can help, or just want to stay up-to-date with their progress, then like their page on Facebook, where you will get access to all sorts of behind-the-scenes footage from the home of this historic film project.
Watch the trailer below: