Freedom of focus

Film producer Ronnie Apteker is on board to help the organisation with marketing and various other aspects of the complicated roll-out process. It’s a job made more complicated by the strong moral spine of the piece.

“It’s a beautiful movie, but it’s not a commercial venture,” confirms Apteker. “The aim is to stimulate a national conversation about values and money and to challenge people’s behaviour; to get them to think about why we do the things we do. It’s an important piece of work, with a global message.”

Being proudly about good morals – even though it’s not preachy – makes Nothing For Mahala a tricky thing to market, though that hasn’t put off sponsors Nedbank from investing in a high-profile, multi-media campaign. It’s a tougher sell than something that’s obviously funny or sexy. “As far as the public are concerned, it’s just a movie” says Apteker.

“Nobody knows about the non-profit thing. The goal is for it to have a great effect. But selling it up front is a lot of knocking on doors; doing a lot of begging. We don’t have a massive cinema culture in South Africa. But the pro-duct is slick.

“We do know that whoever goes to see this movie will not be disappointed. That’s the consensus from all the distributors and the critics who have seen it so far.”

The production values high, with Quizzical Pictures (formerly Curious Pictures) again involved. Apteker recommends looking up the Nothing For Mahala trailer (see below).

“The trailer is stunning. It’s the best piece of trailering I’ve seen coming out of South Africa,” he says, “and the movie is as good as the trailer suggests.”

Does the comedy aspect make it easier to punt the project?

“Absolutely,” says Apteker.

“Family-oriented comedies are the most popular genre in South African cinema. If it was some heavy redemptive drama, that wouldn’t help.

“In the film, we have a guy, Axe – Thapelo Makoena – who wants to make his mark, and he takes short-cuts. But he learns that he needs to value people over money. He discovers that while money is necessary, it’s not a valid motivation for living. Without money, we can’t invest in people and we can’t sponsor projects like this, but if we put money above everything, then where do we go?

“Part of the story here is that Axe has to do community service, looking after an old guy, played by Marius Weyers. They have wonderful chemistry – it’s like a bromance. One has to get in touch with his family; the other has to get in touch with his values.”

How effective is using film to convey these messages relative to other media?

“Look at film versus television,” suggests Apteker.

“Film gets radio attention and advertising on TV. Film is an event, whereas TV is just another programme. An important film gets attention, and it has longevi-ty. It lives on in DVD collections.”

Apteker grins.

“Hey, maybe it’ll even get pirated. That’s one way of getting the message out there.”