Making a scene at Constitution Hill’s old jail
THE place is awash with menacing-looking types wearing brown uniforms, wielding weapons and barking orders to timid prisoners wearing oversized khaki uniforms. The scene looks intimidating until the cameras reveal that this is just a scene in playwright and songwriter Mbongeni Ngema’s new film at the Old Fort, a former notorious prison at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
The stage version of Asinamali was Ngema’s first production to go to Broadway in the 1980s, where it carried an anti-apartheid banner and became a phenomenal success.
The large complex where the film was being shot in August is split into four parts: the Old Fort, the Women’s Gaol, the Number Four prison block and the Constitutional Court. In addition to its extensive permanent art and museum exhibits, the complex also hosts regular art and photography exhibitions and lectures, and has an impressive permanent art collection.
During apartheid many political activists including Albertina Sisulu, Ruth First and Winnie MadikizelaMandela were imprisoned in the Women’s Gaol. Nelson Mandela was briefly imprisoned at the fort following his arrest in 1962.
It is this history and the remains of the prison buildings that attracted Ngema to shoot Asinamali at one of SA’s contemporary paradoxes.
“I wanted a place that would resemble a proper jail, and avoid making a location that would appear like one,” he says.
“I love this place for its authentic look, and the fact that it is quite historic and relevant in the context of Asinamali, which is a political thriller.
“Although Asinamali originally took place in Lamontville Prison in KwaZulu-Natal, where prisoners contemplate their future in the 1980s after they were arrested for their political struggle for SA’s freedom, the movie is taking a slightly different angle.” NGEMA
has cast himself as the lead character Comrade Washington whose lover, called Soweto, is played by actress Danica De La Rey.
He is co-director of the film with his Sarafina colleague Darrell Roodt. The film’s budget, by local standards a relatively healthy sum of R15m, is partly bankrolled by the Department of Trade and Industry’s film fund and private investors Ngema will not name at this stage.
“Asinamali is based on the life story of Comrade Washington, an MK cadre who was trained in the Soviet Union and is battle hardened, having fought the South African Defence Force in Angola. But then as fate would have it, Washington sneaks into the US, only to be arrested by the authorities there as they regarded him as a terrorist,” Ngema explains.
“His coloured girlfriend from Noordgesig, called Soweto, also an MK cadre, is in prison in Lamontville together with other MK cadres.
“After serving his sentence in the US, Washington is employed by Amnesty International, which sends him to SA to work with prisoners. Not only did they not know that they were sending him home, but that they were reuniting him with his girlfriend Soweto.” D
E La Rey says it is a challenge to play the role of Soweto as she had never before set foot in the sprawling Johannesburg township.
“But I am loving every minute of it. Acting alongside an icon like Ngema just feels unbelievable. It is overwhelming, but I am coping as I separate Mbongeni, the icon from Mbongeni as a character,” she says.
She believes the story is still relevant for SA today, as it is about the country’s identity.
“Do we know who we are as South Africans, especially in the context of the challenges that we have such as racism?” De La Rey says. “The movie challenges my own sense of identity as a coloured South African, making me move out of my own comfort zone and try to map out my own identity and position in SA today.”
Scenes for Asinamali have been shot in Soweto, Pretoria and, after Constitution Hill, moved to KwaZulu-Natal. The film will be in post production in October and will head to Cannes Film Festival in May, after which it will be released globally. Other actors in the film include TV stars Mfana Hlophe, Seipati Sothoane, Kere Nyawo and Tertius Meintjes.
I love this place for its authentic look, and the fact that it is quite historic and relevant in the context of Asinamali