Will some of the children who live at SOS Children's Village Maputo become Hollywood stars? Only time will tell as some of them now have the opportunity to be talent spotted! The 24 children, who were chosen at random by the film crew, have been travelling to the small village of Marracuene about 30 kilometres from Maputo to take the part of fishermen in the film.
Luckily, it is school holiday time, so the children are not missing any schooling. The children will be 'on set' for several days over the coming couple of months. The movie, "Blood Diamond", is an action drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. Although as an action drama, some of the storyline becomes a little violent, the crew and film Director, Edward Zwick have assured SOS Children's Villages Maputo that the children will not be involved in any way in any of these scenes.
SOS Children's Villages Mozambique were contacted by the organisers of the movie after the latter had been in contact with the Ministry of Women and Social Services, who were aware of the various public performance put on by the children who live at SOS Children's Village Maputo. These performances include traditional dances and cultural activities which are performed for both their own entertainment and as a way of engaging the local community.
SOS Children's Villages Mozambique are also famous nationally for the wonderful 'home grown' performance based on 'The Lion King" which was the centre piece for the opening festivities at SOS Children's Village Pemba back in 2002. For this performance, local children and SOS Children's Village community members came together to perform in a spectacular production which is still talked about to this day.
The children have met Djimon Hounsou, who has promised to try and make time during the busy shooting schedule to visit the village. "I used to watch movies on the TV", said eight year old Bonamare. "I never thought that I myself could be in a movie! It's like a dream come true!" Unfortunately, due to the tight confidentiality surrounding the filming, no pictures are available of the children taking part in the movie - "You'll have to wait and see the movie!" quipped Fidelis de Souza and SOS Children's Village Maputo co-worker, who is accompanying the children when they go for shooting.