New Talents: Focus on South Africa
Rarely travelling beyond the festival circuit, South African cinema struggles to find a world wide audience outside of Africa, Neill Blomkamp’s work excepted, who has now moved to Hollywood, or political heavy hitters like Tsotsi. After a long period spent exploring the scars of the post-apartheid era, a new generation of filmmakers seems to be emerging, especially in genre cinema.
Always on the lookout for tomorrow’s talents, L'Étrange Festival presented the totally mad Fried Barry in 2020. Jaco Bouwer’s hypnotic and melancholy cinema (Gaia, Breathing In, Orion) confirms this impression. All these films announce the coming of a real identity, a “South African touch” where the harshest violence coexists with contemplation, where the most visceral genre cinema feeds on a striking aesthetic research. The two following gems obviously prove it. The future looks exciting: from now on we’ll have to keep a watchful eye on South Africa.
Always on the lookout for tomorrow’s talents, L'Étrange Festival presented the totally mad Fried Barry in 2020. Jaco Bouwer’s hypnotic and melancholy cinema (Gaia, Breathing In, Orion) confirms this impression. All these films announce the coming of a real identity, a “South African touch” where the harshest violence coexists with contemplation, where the most visceral genre cinema feeds on a striking aesthetic research. The two following gems obviously prove it. The future looks exciting: from now on we’ll have to keep a watchful eye on South Africa.
