‘Two Hues’ scoops film award
AWARD-WINNING film-maker and performance artist Weaam Williams has scooped another prize, this time for Best Lead Actress at the West Europe International Film Festival, Brussels Edition, for her film Two Hues, a fictional drama.
Co-directed with Dominique Roxanne Josie, Two Hues was Williams’s first fiction directorial project, and first on-screen acting role.
The accolade was its fourth international prize, awarded at the festival’s virtual award ceremony on Saturday.
“I am truly honoured for this recognition and was encouraged by my husband, director of photography Nafia Kocks, to play the part, as deep inside, it’s what I really wanted to do. There was great support from my friends and support cast – Khalil Kathrada and Abdu Adams, both seasoned actors, offered words of encouragement. And co-director Dominique Josie assisted hugely with getting into character,” Williams said.
Two Hues, written by Williams, is a short, psychological drama about a bipolar woman with posttraumatic stress disorder, and her life navigating the patriarchy in her family and the workplace.
It also explores the ambiguous identity of Muslim women living in a Western context, and is set in Cape Town.
The lead, Natasa, is a photographer who has bipolar disorder, and is a silent victim of rape, who lives with her parents.
She is pressured by her family to marry and wear a hijab (headscarf) while at work in an advertising agency where women’s bodies are used to sell products.
Natasa only displays her strong and energised self at the advertising agency, however, when alone, her deep-seated depression surfaces.
Williams, who studied drama at UCT and with the Cape Town Theatre Lab, said she wanted her first role to be one that stepped beyond the sexualised expectations of women in front of the camera.
“Women are always quite sexualised in front of the camera, and I knew that the first role I play on screen would be one I wrote myself, which did not have these expectations,” she said.
The film features supporting cast Abidah Dixon Mohammed, Adu Adams, Khalil Kathrada, Danielle Comley and Emil van Niekerk.
Many women worked behind the scenes in the making of the film, including assistant director, UCT masters student Maxine Ajak, and head of the Art Department, Tiffany Adams Matthews.
Two Hues has been selected in 10 festival official selections from around the world, including Turkey, India, France and the UK. It has received six nominations and four awards.
Two Hues is being developed into a feature film, with Williams as both the writer and lead actress in the feature.