“Chapa 100,” directed by Mozambique-based Ique Langa, has secured representation from Italy-based sales agent Luminalia as it advances toward a prominent position in the Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors initiative, which focuses on sub-Saharan African cinema. The project, which won the 2025 Atlas Workshops Development Award, has expanded its production team to include associate producer Mo Harawe, Egyptian cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef, and Mozambique-based production company Better Films, indicating growing industry interest.
The film represents Langa’s second feature following his directorial debut “The Prophet,” which premiered in main competition at IFF Rotterdam earlier this year and will also be screened through Open Doors. The production is led by filmmaker Lara Sousa at Kulunga Filmes in Maputo, with Portugal’s Midas Filmes serving as co-producer. The project recently received the Cultiv’Art/Expertise France Development Grant, described as one of the largest international development grants awarded to a Mozambican feature film.
“Chapa 100” employs an observational style grounded in social realism that transitions into magical realism, drawing thematic parallels to Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The narrative centers on two elderly vendors in Maputo whose budding romance is interrupted when one is struck by a minibus, after which his spirit becomes connected to the vehicle and flowers mysteriously bloom within it. Langa completed a seven-week residency at MacDowell to develop the screenplay.
Beyond “Chapa 100,” Luminalia is also representing “The Prophet” and “Atcha Atcha,” a documentary by acclaimed Senegalese director Mamadou Dia. Dia’s previous work “Nafi’s Father” won the best first feature award at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival. “Atcha Atcha” documents students in their final year at the École des Sables dance school in Senegal. Both Dia and Harawe will conduct a masterclass at Open Doors during the festival.
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