‘Stam’ (The Tree), the new film written and directed by Louw Venter and produced by the team behind the multi-award winners ‘Inxeba’ (The Wound, 2017) and ‘This is not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection’, 2020, has scooped the award for Best South African Film at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). This is the third time that the award has been taken home by work produced by Urucu with a first-time director at the helm.
‘This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection,’ is the first production from Lesotho made by a Mosotho filmmaker to screen at international film festivals.
For the first time in its 41-year history, the DIFF will go virtual and the acclaimed Basotho film will open the festival which was rescheduled from July because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection were named as best films at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which was cancelled due to Covid-19, but went ahead with online judging for its competition sections.
Both films also won best actress in their respective sections – Jin Jing for The Cloud In Her Room in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), and Mary Twala Mhlongo in the Young Cinema Competition (World) for This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection. Mosese’s film, shot entirely in the director’s native Lesotho, also picked up the FIPRESCI prize.
Image: Pedist / CC BY-SA
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