The new South African film, Otelo Burning, has just premiered internationally in Korea at the Busan Film Festival. This week it premieres in the UK at the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
Directed by Sara Blecher, Otelo Burning had its South African premiere in July at the Durban International Film Festival, where it was the opening night film.
Otelo Burning is described as being “somewhere between City of God and Blue Crush’. It is based on real events and is a deeply moving story of courage, love, betrayal and hope.
The film is set in Durban in the pre-democratic South Africa of 1988 and tells of three Zulu boys who escape their harsh township lives through the joy of surfing.