High five for ‘Five Fingers’ screenings in Ginsberg
Neo-Western set in rural apartheid SA stars top actors
EAST London and King William’s Town movie fans will have an opportunity to see the highly anticipated movie Five Fingers for Marseilles when the lead actor, Vuyo Dabula, comes to Ginsberg for a special screening next month.
Hemingways Movies will not be screening the film.
Set in the backdrop of apartheid South Africa the neo-Western, written by Sean Drummond, tells the story of Tau (played by Dabula) who kills two policemen and is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
When he gets out, the embittered “Lion of Marseilles” discovers his comrades are now in prominent positions in the town. But there’s also a vicious new threat afoot, and so Tau must find old allies and reform the Five Fingers to take on new enemies.
The film features prominent some actors, including Hamilton Dhlamini, Zethu Dlomo, Kenneth Nkosi, Mduduzi Mabaso, Aubrey Poolo, Lizwi Vilakazi, Warren Masemola, Dean Fourie, Anthony Oseyemi, Brendon Daniels and Jerry Mofokeng.
According to Drummond, Five Fingers for Marseilles fuses Western influences – from classic to spaghetti and revisionist eras – into a contemporary South African drama played in local tongue by four generations of acclaimed stars, led by television icon Dabula. There are English subtitles.
Among the locations used for the film is the Eastern Cape’s own Lady Grey. Not only did the production team use the town’s breathtaking mountains but a number of young people from the area were used as supporting actors.
Drummond said he has been a fan of the Western genre for as long as he can remember.
“I’ve long loved the idea of bringing the Western into a South African space, but not in a way that risked ‘gimmick’ or stuck to the routine or the expected. “In the world of Five Fingers for Marseilles, I found a story I was burning to tell, a chance to explore a part of the country little seen, to capture a vivid way of life, explore little-known histories and a chance to write complex, compelling characters, with depth and weight, for the best actors in the country. “I wanted to create a film that would create heroes, anti-heroes and villains, and which might even become iconic.”
With parts of the Eastern Cape and Free State used for the film, Drummond and producer Michael Matthews said it was important to them to capture the rich cultural mix of Sesotho and isiXhosa to honour the space and people.
“We knew that the setting of a small rural town would lend itself to the Western, but more importantly, it separates it from being seen as just another SA crime story.
“Seeing any kind of crime in South African cities brings up a pre-existing subjectivity that audiences can’t help but attach to the film. So, by setting the film in a small rural town, it helps create more of a blank canvas for the story and characters,” said Matthews.
Five Fingers for Marseilles makes its cinema debut on April 6, the same day that the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg will be hosting Dabula for a special screening.
The movie will show again on Saturday at 4pm.
For more information about attending the screenings, contact the Steve Biko Centre on (043) 605-6700.