Lesotho’s first Oscar entry, starring the late Mary Twala

Filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, in partnership with independent film production company Urucu, releases Lesotho’s first-ever Oscar entry, This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection.

Starring in this cinematic tribute to land, community and ancestry is the late South African screen legend, Mary Twala. The film and television icon, known for acting in Tsotsi, Machine Gun Preacher and Five Fingers for Marseilles.

The film has been screening internationally since it received critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, held in January.

The visually striking drama, set in the mountains of Lesotho, opens with an elderly widow named Mantoa (Mary Twala), grieving the loss of her son. Determined to die and be laid to rest with her family, her plans are interrupted upon learning that the village and its cemetery will be forcibly resettled to make way for a dam.

The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking at Sundance.

On Twitter, Los Angeles film critic Robert Koehler wrote: “Add Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s name to the ranks of great young filmmakers with his first narrative feature ‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’, a work of extraordinary poetics and emotion, an unforgettable giant from Lesotho.”

South Africans will be able to watch This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection from 27 November at Ster-Kinekor cinemas in Tygervalley, Cape Town and at  Sandton in Johannesburg.

The film is screening for one week in order to qualify for the 93rd Academy awards.

WATCH: This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection (Trailer)

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