Renowned South African writer, lyricist, composer, director and theatre producer Mbongeni Ngema’s Asinamali will be the closing film at the Durban International Film Festival on Sunday (July 23).
“We are honoured to have the veteran creative’s film close the festival this year.
The play made international headways since its production in the early 1980s. It is only fitting that its immortalisation into the small screen takes place at this festival,” said festival manager Chipo Zhou in a statement.
“The strategic correctness of hosting the international film in boosting film in South Africa and the continent has been proven over the years as the growth of the festival has been in synchrony with the growth in the profiling of local productions,” she said.
Asinamali is an adaptation of Ngema’s Broadway production written in 1983 and performed worldwide.
It follows the story of inmates in a prison that is ruled by cruelty and fear.
The prisoners are galvanized into action with the arrival of Comrade Washington, a former soldier turned theatre director who inspires them to find liberation through music, dance and storytelling, culminating in a performance for the prison authorities.
Many were comrades of Robben Islander, Msizi Dube, who led them, with anger and passion in their hearts, to demonstrate against proposed Lamontville Township rent increases, crying “Asinamali” or (“We have no money”).