Africa-Press – Mozambique. A new movie backed by Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin depicts a group of Russian “military instructors” invited to Mozambique to fight Islamic State-linked insurgents in the country’s north.
“Granit,” set to premiere next Tuesday on the government-friendly NTV channel, is produced by Aurum, a company in which Prigozhin holds a major stake, according to Russia’s public registry.
The movie — whose trailer says is dedicated to “our Russian guys” — depicts the real-life events involving Russian mercenaries who fought in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado region in 2019, its director Denis Neymand told The Moscow Times.
“The movie was completely based on a Russian private military company in Mozambique. All of this happened in real life,” said Neymand, who also confirmed that Aurum ordered the production of the movie.
The Moscow Times, along with other outlets, earlier reported on how hundreds of Russian soldiers fighting for private military company Wagner were deployed in Mozambique, with at least seven of them killed by the Islamic insurgents.
Units of the secretive Wagner group have been seen in several conflict zones, allegedly serving Russian private and state interests in Ukraine, Syria and Libya. The group has recently stepped up its efforts on the African continent, fighting in Mozambique and the Central African Republic, and were reportedly invited to Mali this fall.
Neymand said it “wasn’t a secret” during filming that the mercenaries on which the movie is based belonged to the Wagner group.
“But we didn’t name them in the movie because it doesn’t really matter which private military company operates there. The movie is about showing how Russian guys help Africans against evil forces,” he said, adding that the movie was filmed in the Central African Republic, where Russia has a military presence.
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