Oh schucks, there’s an alien on my stoep

Y FIRST introduction to science fiction as a child was actually through an Afrikaans book written by Leon Rousseau in the 1950s. Fritz Deelman was a futuristic cop, based in Cape Town, but working for an international police organisation.

Fritz Deelman en die Suidpoolbende and its sequels sparked a love for the genre because it was something fantastical that was still set in a familiar enough environment to make it, if not possible, at least believable, and I have been lapping up sci-fi and fantasy books, films, comics and graphic novels ever since.

When District 9 released in 2009, I loved it and I notice with great glee that as our film industry is finding its own feet, local film-makers are putting their own spin on the sci-fi and fantasy genre.

Kenyan Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi was screened in Franschhoek at the Cinema Vietnam community screening this past weekend. It’s set in Africa 35 years after World War III which was fought over water and wowed a Sundance audience in 2010.

Keep your eye out for Who Fears Death? which is Nigerian author Nneki Okorafor’s 2011 World Fantasy Award-winning coming-of-age fantasy story set in a rural Africa of the future. Kahiu has been slated to adapt and direct Who Fears Death?, which has been picked up by Focus Features Africa First Short Film Programme to develop into a feature-

Mlength film.

Closer to home, ZENHQ has picked up Etienne Fourie’s 48-minute short, Die Windpomp (which won 10 awards at the annual Afda Awards last year), to turn it into a feature length film.

Chris Roland of ZENHQ, a parttime lecturer at Afda, said he was in awe of the project as he watched the students develop their work.

“It’s a fantastic film and we are in the process of expanding the script now to a 90-minute plus film. Etienne is in the process of writing,” explained Roland.

The story follows a group of ageing friends who realise the water pump on a local farm is pumping water that can restore their youth, though temporarily and with consequences.

Roland says they want to start shooting at the end of March and plan to release the film in time for the July school holidays.

While they would also like to distribute Die Windpomp internationally, they will first submit it to the Toronto Film Festival.

“They are very supportive of South African films and it’s also the right film festival for this type of film,” he said.