Matt and Paul Kalil’s’s debut short film, 24SEVEN was recently screened at the Labia on Orange as part of ACT Cape Town’s annual showcase. This is the brothers’ first collaboration since their Vuka! Award finalist PSA animation, See Jack, which was screened nationally.
The brothers describe 24SEVEN as “an understated film about sex, death, betrayal, forgiveness, regret and religion’. The film was shot on the Red One camera and sponsored in part by Zootee Productions.
24SEVEN was designed to showcase the seven ACT Cape Town advanced class actors. The script was work-shopped on the studio floor, with characters and scenarios developing out of the actors’ (and the directors’) actual life experiences.
It tells the story of 24 hours in the lives of seven young people. In the workshop it came out that many of the students were Christian and wanted to tell a Christian story. The Kalil Brothers aren’t Christian (although Matt was almost a priest) and so the story that emerged is an interesting hybrid of belief structures.
“I wanted to tell a story about people who just happen to be Christian,’ says Matt Kalil. “Their problems are explored by talking and not just praying,’ adds Paul Kalil. “It’s a unique angle on faith in the 2010s.’
The narrative structure of the film is inspired by films like Amores Perros. The film contains four languages – English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese.
