This year, the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown had an extensive line-up of local and international films. Some had already come and gone off local circuits and others were still to come. It wasn’t any of the big blockbuster hits, but films that were thought-provoking.
Among them, was Underground: The Story Of Julian Assange.
As the title suggests, the viewer is taken back into the annals of his- tory and shown how the WikiLeaks founder became who he is.
Because the film isn’t a docu- mentary but an actual narrative, it ends after his first arrest.
This film was almost full to capacity.
However, Man On Ground, the film that is, like the Julian Assange story, quite serious, was not as well attended. Man On Ground stars Fabian Lojede and Hakeem Kae-Kazim as two brothers. The former goes missing when South African townships are rife with xenophobic attacks and the latter goes looking for his brother. The film’s director, Akin Omotoso, was present and took questions after the screening. He spoke about his process of bring- ing the best out of his actors and lamented the fact that “not less than five weeks ago, the same stuff (was) still happening”.
When asked why he doesn’t act any more, Omotoso said: “I’m in the next one… I thought to myself: I don’t want to kill people on screen any more so I’m working on a love story. Something lighter. Hopefully we’ll start shooting next year.” We’ll be waiting for that one.
Speaking of waiting, Andrew Worsdale fans have been waiting a very long time for the South African actor/film-maker to make another movie. He said he kicked off a test screening of his new movie, Durban Poison, at the Labia in Cape Town and the screening in Grahamstown was only a test screening.
Just before the screening at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Worsdale noted that this film would have probably been made a long time ago if they’d had the digital know-how back then.
The movie tells the tale of a pair of lovers who find themselves in prison after four people are murdered. In exchange for some chicken, a cold drink and a swim in the sea, they retrace their steps – with police officers watching their every move – and tell how they made sure that each of the four deceased met their makers. There is an inter- esting twist in the tale so I won’t spoil that.
A film that was a big hit at this section of the National Arts Festival was Gog’Helen, starring Lillian Dube. Gog’Helen. which means Granny Helen, is a woman with a big mouth and a big heart. After her daughter’s death, Gog’Helen attempts to bring her granddaughter closer to her. But the granddaughter has found a life of prostitution in the big city more lucrative than sharing a shack with her granny. Ridden with guilt for not seeing Gog’Helen as much as she should, the grandchild goes to visit while her granny is out. It is then that she decides to do something nice for the matriarch.
The grandchild throws out Gog’Helen’s old mattress and buys her a new one. The only problem, though, is the old mattress had R30 000 stashed in it.
So the movie shows us how the two women must band together as a family and find the missing loot. But the comedy is full of dramatic turns that kept many viewers on the edge of their seats. The film component of the National Arts Festival was a diverse one this year. Here’s hoping it continues in this vein next year.
• Check our listings on Fridays for films opening at cinemas.