Leiden | Sunday June 6 | 11.00 hrs
Followed by discussion with the director
When the War is Over
When the War is Over deals with the after-effects of the South African Struggle against Apartheid, as experienced by two former members of the Bonteheuwel Military Wing (BMW), a militant teenage self-defence unit. Gori is now an army captain in the new South African army. Back from exile for almost a decade he is still unable to come to terms with life after Apartheid, not least with the prospect of married life. It is only in the extreme violence of being on the road – fighting gangsterism, drug dealing and other criminal activities – that he feels at home. One of his friends and comrades, Marlon, became a gang member, like most of the ex-activists. Yet Marlon’s political vision has remained intact, and he is eager to abandon a life of crime. He helps to initiate peace talks amongst warring groups but then his sister is murdered by a rival gang and he is faced with a dilemma.
François Verster (South Africa) | South Africa | 2002 | 52 min | English and Afrikaans spoken, English subtitles
awards: Best Film, Norwegian Documentary Film Festival 2003, SIGNIS Award, Zanzibar International Film Festival 2003, Gold Stone Award 2003, Stone Craft Awards 2003: Direction, Script, Music.
Leiden | Sunday June 6 | 13.00 hrs
Followed by discussion with the director
A Lion’s Trail
This film tells the story of the most famous song ever to come from Africa: ‘Mbube’, which first evolved into ‘Wimoweh’, and then into the universally popular ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. A Lion’s Trail takes us on a journey through South Africa and the USA, into the musical worlds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Manhattan Brothers, Pete Seeger and more. At the same time it reveals how Solomon Linda, the illiterate Zulu musician who composed the song, hardly received a penny from it while others continue to make millions from adaptations. The film is both a vibrant and joyous celebration of the timeless power of this song as well as a strong indictment of still-present injustices within the international recording industry and a record of the attempts to recover a stolen African dream.
François Verster (South Africa) | South Africa, USA | 2003 | 55 min | Zulu and English spoken, English subtitles
awards: Emmy Award for best non-fiction film 2006; Best Documentary Award, Portobello Film Festival 2003, Silver Dhow Award, Zanzibar International Film Festival 2003, NTVA Stone Award: Best Documentary 2003, NTVA Stone Craft Awards 2003: Art direction, Concept, Script and Researc
Leiden | Sunday June 6 | 15.00 hrs
Followed by discussion with the director
The Mothers’ House
The Mothers’ House is a record of four years in the life of Miché, a charming, precocious yet troubled teenage girl growing into womanhood in post-Apartheid South Africa. Living with her mother and grandmother in a ‘coloured’ township outside Cape Town, she has to face life in a community troubled by gangsters and drug abuse as well as the unbearable cycle of emotional and physical violence imprisoning her own family. Miché’s mother Valencia is an ex-Struggle activist, now an unemployed single mother, HIV positive and about to give birth to a third child. Deeply affected by the world she has grown up in herself, she increasingly shifts responsibility for her own problems onto Miché. Miché has to bear the responsibility not only for her mother’s anger and general health, but also for the emotional well-being of her younger siblings.
François Verster (South Africa) | South Africa | 2005 | 76 min | Afrikaans and English spoken, English subtitles
