SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE: On 31 January, at a Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) event held at the Crowne Plaza Rosebank Hotel, MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture & Recreation Lebogang Maile formally congratulated the filmmakers of Layla Fourie and Elelwani for their selection into the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
Layla Fourie is in official competition at Berlinale, which runs from 7 to 17 February, while Elelwani, the first feature film to have been made in the Tshivenda language, was selected for screening at the festival. Both films are GFC-supported projects.
“It’s important for us to congratulate Elewani and Layla Fourie and we hope that their selection for Berlinale will serve as an inspiration to other filmmakers,’ said MEC Maile.
Florence Masebe, who plays the title role in Elelwani, described the making of the film, which opened last year’s Durban International Film Festival, as a very long journey.
“It was the most non-ideal process of making a film,’ continued Masebe. “The story of Elelwani is very close to my heart and to that of the writer / director, Ntshavheni Wa Luruli. I read the book by Titus Maumela on which the film is based while at school. It’s a sweet, beautiful story about a young woman in Venda.
“No-one paid any attention to this film while we struggled to make it and no-one gave us any support, apart from the GFC. I pray that I don’t have to go through such a tough process again.’
Wa Luruli concurred that Elelwani had been a very long journey. “I’ve done two films before Elelwani and my last, Wooden Camera, won the Crystal Bear at Berlinale. The following year I was invited back to Berlinale to be on the jury.
“There are nine years between Wooden Camera and Elelwani, which cost us R3.5m to make. I began planning the film when I realised that indigenous writers are no longer writing in their own languages. Our children can speak their home language but they can’t read it or write it. So I thought that we must expose our culture in a way that is accessible to them – in the form of film and television.’
Wa Lurulu recounted how he’d proposed a Tshivenda drama series to public service broadcaster SABC many years ago but had been rejected. He then met producer Florian Schattauer of Shadowy Meadow Productions and together they decided to make Elelwani.
“When Florian was trying to raise money for the project, everyone referred to it as “that stupid Venda film’ and now it’s been invited to Berlinale. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait another nine years to make my next film as I’m not a spring chicken anymore,’ concluded Wa Luruli.
Jeremy Nathan, the South African co-producer of Layla Fourie, noted that this is only the second time that a South African film has been in official competition at Berlinale (the other being the Golden Bear winner, U-Carmen eKhayelitsha).
Said Nathan: “I don’t know whether or not we will win at Berlinale but just being selected for official competition is a reward. Pia Marais, the South African born writer / director of the film lives between South Africa and Sweden and has studied in Germany.
“It took us six years to raise the R20m budget from the film. We enjoyed strong support from South Africa’s Department of Trade & Industry (the dti) and from the GFC. Layla Fourie is an official Germany / France / South Africa co-production and we utilised national funds in Germany, France and the Netherlands. We spent all this money in South Africa and so brought lots of revenue into the country. Spier Films bought private equity in the film.’
Layla Fourie goes on release in Berlin on 11 February and Nathan hopes to release it in South Africa shortly afterwards.
Report by Joanna Sterkowicz
