‘The Wound’ clinches another festival award

SOUTH African film The Wound (Inxeba) has bagged the best first feature award at BFI London Film Festival‚ showing no signs of slowing down with its ongoing winning streak.

The controversial film, starring musician Nakhane Toure‚ impressed audiences at the prestigious film festival‚ which ended on Sunday.

Director John Trengove‚ who accepted the award, singled out Toure in his acceptance speech for embodying the role he played.

“I’d like to single out one person tonight. Nakhane Toure‚ our lead actor. It’s the most rewarding part of what I do‚ when I’ve struggled with a character on the page for so long‚ to one day be standing in front of that person‚ in the flesh‚ embodying everything I imagined and so much more.

“We created a character who mirrors the experiences of marginalised queer South Africans who have been erased from our cinema for far too long‚” he said.

Producers Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw said the cast and crew were excited over the support the film has been getting from international audiences.

The film is centred around a homosexual love story told entirely in Xhosa‚ mainly set at an initiation school‚ which has attracted both acclaim and criticism from traditionalists.

The Wound has been selected as Mzansi’s entry for next year’s Oscars and has already won the Outfest International Grand Jury Prize in Los Angeles and Best Film and Best Actor at Cinema Jove‚ the Valencia International Film Festival, and has been screened at various international film festivals to date.

The movie will release in South Africa in February next year. – TshisaLIVE