The Train of Salt and Sugar

The Train of Salt and Sugar

An African Western

2016 · 93 min · ★ 7.4 · Adventure, Drama, War

In 1989, Mozambique is a country ruined by civil war. The train that connects Nampula to Malawi is the only hope for people willing to risk their lives to exchange a few bags of salt for sugar. Running slowly over sabotaged tracks, the journey is filled with obstacles and violence. Mariamu, a frequent traveler, shares her trip with her friend Rosa, a nurse who is going to her new hospital, living the reality of war for the first time, Lieutenant Taiar, who only knows the reality of his military life, and another soldier, Salomão, with whom he doesn’t get along. Amongst bullets and laughter, stories of love and war unfold as the train advances towards the next stop.

Directed by Licínio Azevedo · Written by Licínio Azevedo

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 5m together

The Train of Salt and Sugar

Disobedience

Both from Licínio Azevedo.

More from Licínio AzevedoSee all →

A Water War

A Water War · 1996

MovieDocumentary

Four stories in a Mozambican village. Stories about a water can, a well that gets broken, a lonely hunter, and a bird that becomes a radio.

Disobedience

Disobedience · 2002

MovieDocumentaryDrama

Accused of having caused the death of her husband, she was persecuted and humiliated. Twice she proved her innocence. Even so, she was punished in a merciless fashion.

Virgin Margarida

Virgin Margarida · 2012

Virgin Margarida

1975, Mozambique’s rebirth as an independent nation. The young revolution sweeps the streets of Maputo clean of prostitutes and bad habits. The prostitutes are sent to re-education camps deep in the countryside, where they will become “new women” – loyal comrades of the new nation. As the “clean-up” takes place, Margarida, a 16-year-old girl from the countryside, is mistakenly taken. Drawing on the stories of real women, Virgin Margarida is a dramatic exploration of a little known chapter in Mozambique’s history. A chapter that made no allowance for individuality and enshrined male domination as an ideology.

Time of the Leopards

Time of the Leopards · 1985

Time of the Leopards

As children, a Mozambique native and a Portuguese colonialist were friends. Years have passed and Mozambique is fighting for its independence. Two childhood friends meet on opposing sides.

Nhinguitimo

Nhinguitimo · 2021

MovieDocumentary

In the form of a short political fable, Nhinguitimo explores the relations between the dispossession of rural land—and its crops—and the colonial system. The story of the rebellion of one single farm worker against the colonizers six decades ago can also shape a reflexion on the persisting exploitation of the territory and its people.

The Great Bazaar

The Great Bazaar · 2006

The Great Bazaar

Two boys with different experiences and goals meet up in a sprawling African market. One is looking for a job, to get back what was stolen from him and return home. The other will do anything to avoid having to go back with his family. They become friends and together they reinvent the world.

The Devil’s Harvest

The Devil’s Harvest · 1988

The Devil’s Harvest

MovieDocumentary

“A Colheita do Diabo is my first major film experience (…) in which for the first time, aside from theatre actors, I used people who had no [film] experience. The main characters were former fighters, former FRELIMO guerrilla fighters who took part in the war for independence.” Licínio de Azevedo

Hóspedes da Noite

Hóspedes da Noite · 2007

Hóspedes da Noite

MovieDocumentary

In the colonial era the Grande Hotel in the city of Beira was the largest in Mozambique: 350 rooms, luxurious suites, Olympic-sized swimming pool... At present the building, which is in ruins, with no electricity or running water, is inhabited by 3500 people. Some have been living there for twenty years. In addition to the rooms, the foyers, corridors, service areas and basement of the hotel - here it's always night-time - also serve as residences.

More Like This

Paradise Now

Paradise Now · 2005

MovieCrimeThriller

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind · 1939

Gone with the Wind

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields · 1984

The Killing Fields

MovieDramaHistory

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

The Travelling Players

The Travelling Players · 1975

The Travelling Players

A traveling theatre troupe tours the Greek countryside from 1939 to the early 1950s, staging “Golfo the Shepherdess”. As the years pass, its members endure persecution, betrayal, executions, and exile. Their personal stories become entangled with the country’s major historical events, in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and loss.

Michael Collins

Michael Collins · 1996

Michael Collins

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

Lord of War

Lord of War · 2005

MovieCrimeDrama

Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.

Timbuktu

Timbuktu · 2014

Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.

Persepolis

Persepolis · 2007

MovieAnimationDrama

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

Savior

MovieHistoryDrama

A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.

The Leopard

The Leopard · 1963

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

Anna and the King

Anna and the King · 1999

Anna and the King

MovieDramaRomance

The story of the romance between the King of Siam (now Thailand) and the widowed British school teacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860s. Anna teaches the children and becomes romanced by the King. She convinces him that a man can be loved by just one woman.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley · 2006

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party · 2007

The Hunting Party

MovieActionAdventure

A young journalist, an experienced cameraman and a discredited reporter find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad.

Salvador

Salvador · 1986

MovieDramaThriller

In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.

Carla's Song

Carla's Song · 1996

1987, love in time of war: bus driver George meets Carla, a Nicaraguan exile living a precarious, profoundly-sad life in Glasgow. Her back is scarred, her boyfriend missing, her family dispersed; she's suicidal. George takes her to Nicaragua to find out what's happened to them and help her face her past.

Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain · 2003

MovieWarHistory

In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.

Cows

MovieDramaMystery

An act of cowardice influences the lives of two Basque families over three generations.

Tears of the Sun

Tears of the Sun · 2003

Tears of the Sun

Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter