Potrait of a lead ing man
Bongile Mantsai’s role in ‘Knuckle City’ takes audiences on a journey of broken dreams, and of coming to terms with cruelty. interviewed the actor
IT’S NOT every day that you’re deeply touched by a movie, but award-winning film-maker Jahmil XT Qubeka’s latest, Knuckle City, a hardhitting boxing film, packs a mean punch.
Starring Bongile Mantsai in the lead role as Dudu Nyakama, an ageing boxer, Knuckle City explores greed, commercial exploitation, poverty, violence and culture in the dusty streets of Mdantsane, East London.
The film opened the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) last year, was on the slate of films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was chosen as South Africa’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
These accolades followed the standing ovation the film received at the festival, which proved to Qubeka and the cast that this African story will take its place in history.
At the festival, Mantsai won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of the boxer.
Last week, the role earned him a nomination for the award of Best Actor in a film at the 14th SA Film and Television Awards (Saftas), to be held next month. He has also been nominated for the award of Best
Actor in a soapie at the Saftas, for his role in Scandal!. Mantsai stars as the villainous Mthunzi Mayiza in the e.tv soap opera.
In Knuckle City, Nyakama is a former boxing champion who has seen better days.
He longs to win back the public recognition he formerly received.
Now regarded as a joke, and a failure, he struggles to be signed for one more fight, which he believes will uplift his fractured family, and possibly change his fortunes.
Contending that the boxing world is rife with criminality, Nyakama unwittingly enlists the help of his reckless but resourceful gangster brother.
Haunted by the ghost of their father, Nyakama soon finds that the fight at home is far more challenging than any opponent he could possibly face in the ring.
Speaking to Mantsai ahead of the film’s nationwide cinema release on Friday, he said the journey the film had taken him on was “incredible”.
“Being new in the film industry and having had the opportunity to participate in the films I’ve done is amazing. I tend to choose films that speak to my heart.
“I want to leave an impact in people’s lives, not an impression,” he said about his film roles to date, which include starring in Inxeba (The Wound) (for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Saftas in 2018), and Sew the Winter to My Skin.
Mantsai was pushed to the limit in portraying Nyakama. He trained with professional boxers from Mdantsane in getting ready for the role, and took a few “real punches” in scenes.
“I love to stretch myself as an actor and find new boundaries and this movie allowed me to do that. Dudu is a breadwinner, a struggler.
His wife died when he was young and since then he’s been psychologically affected by it. He’s trying to make something out of nothing, but going about it in the wrong way,” said Mantsai.
He said his aim was not merely to play the part but to make it believable – he wanted to learn the language of Mdantsane and about the behavioural patterns of the suburb to do justice to the role and to Qubeka’s writing. Qubeka is from Mdantsane, and wrote the film script as a “love letter to his home town”.
“Jahmil took me to Mdantsane before we started shooting. I was thrown in the deep end. Before I knew it, I was training with top boxers in the area. They were very unfriendly and spoke very little,” he said. “It was so uncomfortable but I liked it.
“During the shoot I even took a good few real punches. I also watched some fights and interviewed some of the boxers.”
He said the more time he spent with the people of Mdantsane the more comfortable he felt playing the character.
“I liked being a part of the community and everyone made me feel like family. The more I stayed there, the more I realised how true the storyline was. Jahmil is a fantastic writer and director.”
On working with Qubeka, he said he was given a lot of freedom in playing the role. He sat down with Qubeka and edited the script after experiencing the life of a boxer in Mdantsane.
“He is one of the greatest directors I have worked with, but he is also tough,” he said.
“I was challenged when it came to certain parts. He knows what he wants and knows what his actors are capable of, so he pushed us to give our best.”
Mantsai recalled the challenges he faced during shooting.
“The hardest part of shooting was the stunts and fights scenes.
“In real life, one round in the ring lasts for three minutes, but when shooting, that fight could go on for an hour.”
He revealed that shooting the last fight scene in the film was the toughest moment for him, mentally and emotionally.
“The week before that shoot, I buried my dad. It was a very painful and sensitive moment for me, and the last fight needed all my energy. It took, literally, all the fight I had in me at the time.”
He said audiences watching
Knuckle City could celebrate a truly South African story that was edgy, controversial, unfiltered and raw.
“We always complain about our own; now it’s time to celebrate.”
Knuckle City also stars Thembekile Komani, Faniswa Yisa, Patrick Ndlovu, Siv Ngesi, Owen Sejake, Angela Sithole, Nomhle Nkonyeni and Zolisa Xaluva.
Knuckle City opens in cinemas in South Africa on February 28.