Niki Barker
A major British film company has based itself in the safari town of Hluhluwe in northern Zululand to make the film version of Kuki Gallman’s book, I Dreamed of Africa.
Confirmed leads are Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger (LA Confidential) and Vincent Perez (Swept from the Sea). Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke) will direct.
The book is the autobiography of an Italian woman who moved to a farm in Kenya with her two small children after her husband was killed in a car accident. Further tragedies befall her in a tale that has been described as heart-rending but ultimately uplifting.
Comparisons with Out of Africa will be inevitable, but film representative Clive Stafford is emphatic that this is a totally different story with a totally different approach. The book made much of Africa’s spirituality (thus the “dreamed” of the title), and the film will be true to the spirit of the story.
Hluhluwe was chosen as the location because of its close resemblance to the book’s actual setting in Kenya. The South African location has the infrastructure that is lacking in Kenya – which has also become notorious for bandit activity. KwaZulu-Natal’s Lubombo mountains, from a distance, could be the hills of the Rift Valley, and the vegetation of fever trees and savannah-type grass and scrub is authentic. At the moment a crew of about 20 is building the sets in the tropical veld just outside Hluhluwe. Further crew members will be arriving over the next four weeks, to start shooting at the end of August. The full crew complement is 180, and South African film professionals will be used extensively. Local people from the Hluhluwe area could find jobs as set- builders, runners and extras.