Local film makes waves
Award-winning Basotho film to open Durban International film festival
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection is a haunting tribute to land, community and ancestry, and stars the late, much-loved South African actress Mary Twala in her swansong performance.
It is the opening film at this year’s Durban International Film Festival (DIFF).
The festival runs from September 10 to 20 and, for the first time in its 41-year history, DIFF will go virtual.
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection, directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, was viewed by critics as one of the best films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, held in January.
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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 when she discovers that the village and its cemetery will be forcibly resettled to make way for a dam reservoir.
Refusing to let the dead be desecrated, she finds a new will to live and ignites a collective spirit of defiance within her community.
The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking at Sundance.
Allan Hunter of Screen International said: “It offers a vivid, beautifully crafted reflection on identity, community and the tension between respecting age-old traditions and accepting the seemingly unstoppable march of progress.”
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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.
“This is an unforgettable giant from Lesotho.”
The film continues to travel internationally, and has taken home six further awards, including a Best Actress prize for Twala.
It will release in South Africa in 2021 and will be distributed by Indigenous Film Distribution.
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