Much has been said about the fact that Nosipho Dumisa has made an ode to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window with her debut feature film, Nommer 37 (Number 37), and, for good reason. The film features the legendary British director’s infamous touch-points of suspense in its story-telling. But beyond an homage to a legend of filmmaking, Nosipho’s given us a calling card, of her skills as a filmmaker in her own right. She’s got a keen eye – and ear – for what creates tension, anticipation, and frustration, but also for taking the sound of a good idea and turning it into a good film. The premise is centred on Randal (played…
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Wanuri Kahiu brings Rafiki to Cannes
When the credits rolled and the lights came up at the end of her film’s premiere in the Palais des Festival, director Wanuri Kahiu stood next to her lead actresses Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva, all dressed in off-white outfits, taking in the acclaim of a standing ovation. Someone in the audience shouted, ‘Thank you!’ and Kahiu put her hand over her heart. Festival director Thierry Fremaux motioned for them to look up and see just how many people were clapping in the theatre’s balcony seats too, lauding the first Kenyan film to ever debut at the Cannes Film Festival. “What’s incredible about the response is that people are so…
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#NowWatching – Dis Ek, Anna
A film about sexual abuse is never an easy sell. But in the hands of the right director and the right cast it has the ability to make you empathize with those at the centre of the story, or perhaps even offer some degree of healing and catharsis. So it is with Die Ek, Anna, an Afrikaans-subtitled film, and the third feature, from South African director Sara Blecher that opened strong at the South African box office this past weekend. It’ll begin showing at film festivals around the world later this week. It is a story about a girl who shoots her step-father after years of abuse. It’s no spoiler to relay this…
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The NY African Film Festival
Given the situation in Nigeria at the moment, and the global outcry that’s been growing some two weeks after the abduction of over 200 girls by the extremist group Boko Haram (#bringbackourgirls), it’s a pity that the film Difret is not part of the line-up for this year’s NY African Film Festival. I saw it at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, a day after it had been announced that Angelina Jolie had signed on as executive producer. The story, while not altogether the same circumstances as the abduction that’s taken place in Nigeria, shares a similar strain – kidnapping girls to further a set of men’s ill-founded beliefs. Difret takes…
