Township Surfers Put Nation`s Rebirth On The Big Screen

                                                                  The Big Issue Magazine - Cape Town

                                                                  

Frenzied whispers of "the new Tsotsi" and "best SA film in years" have accompanied the build-up to the big screen release of Otelo Burning,which opened at cinemas nationwide as this edition hit the streets.After opening last year`s Durban International Film Festival,the isiZulu film about three township teens finding freedom through surfing during the dying days of apartheid went on a winning streak.It scooped the Audience Choice Award at the 2012 CinemaBC Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro,was on the selection list for the 2011 London International Film Festival,took Best Feature Film at this year`s Cape Winelands Film Festival and was nominated for 13 Africa Movie Academy Awards,winning two of the awards last month.Daluxolo Moloantoa spoke to writer/director Sara Blecher about her trailblazing film.

Lamontville has always had a clear claim to fame - its Premier Soccer League team, the Lamontville Golden Arrows.Less well known is the fact that within the sprawling Durban township lies a centre responsible for producing some of South Africa`s best water sportsmen.The Lamontville Swimming Pool has produced the likes of Sihle Xaba(actor,champion body boarder,surfer and lifeguard),UK-based water-polo player Ndumiso Buthelezi and countless top lifeguards and surfers.

Now,with the opening of Otelo Burning on big screens countrywide,the Lamontville Swimming Pool will finally be recognised for its role in transforming the lives of black youngsters in the late 1980`s and early 1990`s.Described by some as "City of God meets Blue Crush", Otelo Burning is essentially a coming of age film about yhree teenagers who discover a world previously closed to them through surfing.It is a world completely at odds with the township existence they are familiar with in the early 1990`s,where their daily is facing growing violence and the life-threatening political stand-off between the United Democratic and the Inkatha Freedom Party`s impis.

Mix the political turbulence of the day,betrayal and jealousy and you have the makings of a uniquely South African hit starring three up-and-coming young actors:Jafta Mamabolo(Jerusalema,Generations) as the protagonist Otelo,Tshepang Mohlomi(iZulu Lami) as Otelo`s younger brother Ntwe and Thomas Gumede(A Place Called Home) as New Year,Otelo`s best friend.The film is not award-winning director Sara Bleche`s maiden voyage into the world of young Zulu boys and the open sea as their backround.She previuosly directed the TV drama series Bay of Plenty,chronicling the lives of a group of Zulu lifeguards on Durban`s beacfront.And she seems to have a thing about surfing,releasing Surfing Soweto in 2011,a documentary following the lives - and deaths - of a group of Soweto "train surfers".

But take a step back.Why of all sports, surfing as the central theme to a coming of age moviewhich ties into a nation`s painful rebirth?

"Ask any surfer,surfing is about as close as you can get to expiriencing true freedom.When one is surfing all the negative things that one has to deal with in one`s daily life simply go out the window.You are right there,in that moment..and the only thing that exists is you and the wave.This is the reason why i used surfing as a metaphor for freedom in the movie.I wanted to depict and explore the current state of our freedom in South Africa today" she explains.

MEANING OF FREEDOM

More than just surfing and seeking freedom,Otelo Burning is about what happens once freedom is attained. "Once people have achieved freedom" Blecher continues "it also means means that they have attained the right to become human again in all forms.To love again,to respect each other again,and to learn to see innate value in one another all over again."Otelo Burrning,however, delves far deeper than the intial joy of discovering freedom. "Being human" she adds, "also means having to deal to deal with the unhelpfullness of greed,corruption,jealousy and other social vices.Ultimately it is these sins which begin to cause the rot and eat away at that freedom.The movie is saying that we need to be vigilant and guard against such a scenario unfolding in our country today."

"We make movies with foreign audiences in mind and it does not work because it compromises the movie`s authenticity.If the story works for a local audience it will work for a foreign audience" - Sara Blecher

At this point it becomes easy to draw a comparison to Lord of The Flies,William Golding`s 1954 novel about a group of young boys stranded on an island after a plane crash,who turn on each other in a quest for survival.But Blecher is quick to refute the comparison."Whereas Lord of The Flies is about universal values of individual welfare versus the common good and the gradual regress of humanity to a primitive state, Otelo Burning examines human nature in the unique context of South Africa`s metamorphosis of in the early 1990`s."

It was a conscious decision taken by Blecher to tell the story against the backdrop of the political uphevals of the early 1990`s,as she feels that this period in the country`s history needs to be relooked at. "Just as we had the TRC hearings on atrocities commited during apartheid,we also need to have a TRC-type commision on the tragic events of that period" she emphasises.

 Blecher`s film also examines a curious aspect of Zulu culture - the nature of the relationship between Zulu people and the sea.Historically resident along Kwa-Zulu Natal`s coastline,Zulu people have always embraced a distant relationship with the sea.They belive that there is danger lurking beneath the sea`s waves, and therefore a gulf exists between the two.It is in this context that "ukundiza emanzini" - flying on water,becomes so attractive to the boys.It represents a shift from tradition.
The director also stuck to her guns about going against the grain and keeping the movie in isiZulu and not casting big-name American actors. " I am a firm believer in the local film industry`s ability to tell real South African stories" she explains. " I belive that if a movie is about South Africa then it has to be real.One of the main motives behind shooting in isisZulu was for the community of Lamontville and other Durban townships to watch the film and say..yes that is us."

"Imagine if the Bond movies were made in French?" she continues, "it wouldn`t be authentic because the story itself is not French.Very often we make movies with a foreign audience in mind,and it does not work because it compromises the movie`s authenticity.If the story works for a local audience it will work for a foreign audience" she says,pointing to the success of Oscar-winning local drama Tsotsi.

Blecher also kept the soundtrack 100% local.Amongst the artists featured on it are rap connoisseurs Tumi and The Volume,soulstress Zaki Ibrahim and hip-hop afficionado Reason.In another SA movie release first, the entire soundtrack is freely available as a download on the official movie site.

All this was achieved on a shoe-string budget.No kudos for guessing it,but the greatest challenge she faced in making the movie was, indeed, funding."Our local industry is terribly under-resourced financially" says Blecher "Due to lack of finance we had to resort to turning the story into a televsion series until we could raise the needed finance to begin shooting it as a movie."

For Blecher,the long struggle to get Otelo Burning to the big screen has been worth it,though,and not only for the accolades the film keeps collecting.

"In the end," she says, "the movie is about SouthAfrica`s growing pains,and the need to guard against complacency.It is also a celebration of the country`s unique attributes.It can go a long way in helping to heal the political,economic and emotional rifts amongst us."