By Ogova Ondego
Published June 24, 2010
STATE OF VIOLENCE, the debut fiction film by South African Khalo Matabane is slated to open the 31st Durban International Film Festival (July 22-August 1, 2010) in KwaZulu-Natal.
STATE OF VIOLENCE is the story of a man whose wife is murdered in what seems like a random act of violence. The man embarks on a search for the killer only to discover that the killing is linked to the darkness in his past. Written and directed by Matabane, State Of Violence starres Fana Mokoena, Presley Chweneyagae and Neo Ntlatleng.
Matabane, who won the Best South African Film award at DIFF in 2006 for CONVERSATIONS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON, says: “State Of Violence is a film about memory and denial. A successful man experiences a tragic event which forces him to go on a journey into a landscape that represents his past. Once there, he is confronted with a memory that he has buried, and incident that tore apart his family.”
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The producer of the film, Jeremy Nathan of DV8, says, “The film explores the consequences of violence on contemporary South African life. Through the eyes and point of view of the lead character, Bobedi, the film reveals how acts of violence in the past can affect family life today. It asks more questions than provides answers, but reveals how complex the issues of forgiveness and revenge are in any society with a violent political past.”
The Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Meanwhile, South Africa is waiting with bated breath for her first, fully fledged film studio and sound stage complex by the end of 2010. Developed by Anant Singh and Marcel Golding with the support of the national, provincial and local government agencies on a 200 ha plot, the ZAR430 million (about US$53,750,000) Cape Town Film Studios (CTFS) is South Africa”s first major Hollywood-style film studio whose goal is to construct a one-stop shop production facility to help local producers clinch deals and also attract interest from international film producers.
“CTFS is destined to become the physical home for filmmaking in Africa,” Nico Dekker, the CEO of CTFS tells African Review of Business and Technology. “It is important to remember that CTFS does not belong only to Cape Town, but will serve South Africa, Southern Africa and the rest of Africa as a gateway for international production, as well as the development of sustainable local production.”
Besides a highly skilled crew and technical know-how in South Africa, physical production costs in this southern African nation are said to be at least 50 per cent more affordable than, say, in Los Angeles.
It is estimated that the film sector, that employs 20,000 people, contributes an indirect turnover of more than ZAR3.5 billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product.
