‘Vaya’ set to fly SA flag high at festival
SOUTH African film Vaya is set to fly the SA flag high when it is screened at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in Germany next week.
The film‚ which weaves together the stories of three people who have been homeless‚ will become the latest South African film to be featured at the festival.
It follows in the footsteps of Shepherds and Butchers which screened there last year.
Vaya is directed by award-winning director Akin Omotoso and stars Mary Twala‚ Sihle Xaba‚ Zimkhitha Nyoka and Warren Masemola.
The film’s producer and writer Robbie Thorpe said he and Akin would be flying to Berlin to introduce the film at the festival.
“To be selected for the Berlin Film Festival is a great honour. The festival is in the top four or five film festivals in the world. It brings together some of the world’s most important players in the film industry. So‚ for our film to be shown on such a prestigious platform is humbling‚” Thorpe said.
The film‚ which took eight years to make‚ premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September last year.
Thorpe said he was pleased with the reception the film received there and is hoping to have similar success in Berlin. “The film got an incredible response at the Toronto Film Festival. We had three sold-out screenings in massive cinemas and our director Omotoso was signed by a Hollywood agency.”
According to a review on the Toronto Film Festival website the film begins on a train travelling from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg, and focuses on three passengers, following each of them into the city. Although they are strangers to one another they have interlocking destinies.
“Nkulu [Sibusiso Msimang] is charged with retrieving his father’s remains from the capital and bringing them back home for burial. What he doesn’t know is that a whole other set of relatives have their own plans.
“Zanele [Zimkhitha Nyoka] is chaperoning a young girl who’s en route to reunite with her mother, a singer who manages a tavern. When Zanele meets the mother’s boyfriend, he promises that he can get her on TV as a dancer, but there’s more to this offer than meets the eye.
“Nhlanhla [Sihle Xaba], excited by the prospect of getting rich quick, is caught up in criminal activities – ranging from kidnapping to murder – the moment he gets off the train.”
The film has been hailed by critics for telling the story of people who are often seen as invisible by society. Thorpe said the film’s producers tried to do this by casting little-known actors Zimkhitha Nyoka‚ Sibusiso Msimang and Sihle Xaba in key roles.
The festival will also feature South African director John Trengove’s film The Wound‚ which last month made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, USA. — Tshisalive