Angus Gibson’s Back of the Moon to bring Sophiatown to life as it hits big screen
JOBURG – Richard Lukunku and Moneoa Moshesh star in 1950s Sophiatown drama slated to hit SA big screens 6 September.
Starring Richard Lukunku, Moneoa Moshesh, Lemogang Tsipa, Thomas Gumede, S’Dumo Mtshali, and Israel Matsepe-Zulu, Back of the Moon is a film written by Elizabeth Dougherty and directed by Angus Gibson.
The drama is slated to hit the big screen on 6 September and is set in the heydays of Sophiatown – a time characterised by political upheaval, jazz and marabi clubs, gangsters and forbidden love.
Together with William Kentridge, Gibson made Freedom Square and Back of the Moon, a documentary about Sophiatown based on the research and interviews the duo had done on the crazy, cosmopolitan, half-demolished ghetto on the edge of Johannesburg.
“Thirty years after making the documentary, we had magnificent 1950s sets left over from The Road, a telenovela we had made, and my partner, Desireé Markgraaff, suggested that we find a story to shoot a small feature film before they were torn down. I was keen to do something with the actors, Richard Lukunku and Moneoa Moshesh who had done fabulous work on The Road,” Gibson said.
On the eve of his home being demolished by apartheid police, Badman, a notorious gangster decides to fight them to the death. But then Eve, a gorgeous torch singer, is thrust into his orbit. On the last day of his life, Badman finds something worth living for.
Played by Lukunku, Badman is an intellectual and the leader of the most powerful gang in Sophiatown who lives life on his own terms while the gorgeous Moshesh brings Eve Msomi, a torch-singer on the brink of an international career, to life.
Refusing to face the bleak reality of black South-African life, Badman decides that he will fight to the death for his home. But fate, thrusts Eve, whom he has loved from a distance, into his orbit. And on this night that bears this beautiful encounter, Badman’s gang, The Vipers, sensing his vulnerability, turns on them both.
“In the end it is a film about potential stifled and wasted by apartheid – men preying on each other in a pressure-cooker situation. It is about feisty, talented women surviving their abuse by any means necessary, but ultimately, it is the love story that transcends this darkness,” said Gibson.
