A post-apartheid South Africa is thrusted into a deep-rooted fear of an apocalyptic civil war as freedom fighter Nelson Mandela's last breath nears. Situated beneath the grand Drakensberg Mountain range next to a traditional Zulu settlement, a puritanical Afrikaner community prepare to fight for their land, culture and lives as their enemy does the same. As the great racial war nears, various fractions of supremacist militia sound their calls drawing PIETER, a young white boy (13), into the hysteria by enlisting him in one of their camps. Meanwhile, fleeing from a dubious past in a burning Johannesburg, THATO (23), a young black man, arrives to the Zulu settlement where he will be drawn into an endless cycle of violence. In a time of mass paranoia and bloodshed, the two youths, from each side, must bare the scars of a nation's deepest wounds.

A film by Sibs SHONGWE-LA MER

South Africa, Feature, 1h40

Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Duration: 100.00 minutes
Language: film shot in AFRIKAANS, ENGLISH, ZULU
Working budget: € 2.1 M


Statement
As a South African citizen born after the Apartheid, I intend for this film to unreservedly investigate the crippling and fatal consequences of the propagation of hateful ideologies. The film centres on the prevailing themes of national destabilization, the death of Mandela's South African dream, the loss of innocence and the aftermath of hate. It is a warning to a global society that seems to be steeped in a totalitarian approach to race and religion, needlessly inflicting terror and bloodshed through the justification of murderous ideologies. Since the time of historical South African wars, there has been a fight for ownership of the lands, one that was a central catalyst to the establishment of the apartheid system. Often a subject of taboo, these tensions still exist silently today.
Sibs SHONGWE-LA MER

Directed by : Sibs SHONGWE-LA MER


Contacts and useful links

Production
MILLE ET UNE PRODUCTIONS - Farès Ladjimi
44 boulevard de magenta - 75010 Paris - T: +33 (0)1 47 70 44 70 - milleetune@free.fr - www.1001productions.net

UPRODUCTION - Jean-Raymond Garcia
18, rue Porte Dijeaux - 33000 BORDEAUX - +33 (0)5 56 39 50 52 - jr.garcia@uproduction.fr - http://www.uproduction.fr


2018 | 71st Cannes Film Festival, France
* Project - selected at L'Atelier de la Cinéfondation (14th edition)
* Financing acquired € 110 000