kagablog

April 3, 2008

By Theresa Smith

The much anticipated local feature, Hansie is currently in post production. Global Creative Studios marketing manager, Peter Morgan, said they’ve had positive feedback from the rough edit screening.

Morgan said Nu Metro will distribute the film throughout Africa and they are negotiating worldwide distribution.

But, you have to wonder just how much purchase they’ll find in places like the US, which doesn’t understand cricket and have probably never even heard of Hansie Cronjé.

The film should be released on Heritage Day, September 24.

Friday, however, sees the release of Confessions Of A Gambler on the local circuit. Rayda Jacobs’s book was certainly one of the most accessible and popular local books in a long time.

She used a non-professional film cast to tell the screen story of a Muslim woman who happens to be a gambling addict.

Jacobs also kept an extra-ordinary amount of control by not signing away the rights to the book and not only working behind the scenes, but also in front of the camera.

Director Henk Pretorius also kept his finger on the pulse by doing just about everything except star in his own movie Bakgat, which opens next week.

The soccer documentary about the game on Robben Island, More Than Just A Game, will release on April 25. Directed by Junaid Ahmed, it is a mix of interviews and dramatised action.

Son Of Man (June 20), on the other hand, is purely dramatic . From the people who brought us uCarmen eKhayelitsha, it tells the story of Jesus, but told as if he was a modern-day freedom fighter born into an unnamed African township.

The familiar Bible tale is told using powerful imagery familiar to South Africans, but very different to the world out there.

Aryan Kaganof’s SMS Sugarman still has no firm release date, but he was helping director Akin Omotoso on Jesus And The Giant, so he’s been busy.

Omotoso was last year’s Standard Bank film artist for the National Arts Festival and he will screen Jesus And The Giant at Grahamstown this year.

Shot entirely as a series of stills, it plays with our stereotypes of gender identity and raises the question of using violence to fight violence.

And, of course, what would the local circuit be without Leon Schuster? Debashine Thangevelo paid a visit to the set of the controversial Mr Bones 2 (November 28).

Apparently, there’s Poena 2 in the offing and World Unseen - a challenging love story between two South African-Indian women during apartheid - is also lined up for November.

The filmmakers of The White Lion had a setback last year when some of their master tapes were stolen, but they’re back on track. They’re currently filming the scenes with the human cast and want to finish by November.