Alex Dodd
– Milan, Marseille, New York, Rotterdam A short, hard-hitting film about xenophobia in the heart of Johannesburg by local film- maker Zola Maseko has been playing to thunderous applause around the world. This is the first time a film by a black South African director has achieved such widespread international acclaim. The Foreigner was screened at Cinema Africa in downtown Johannesburg last week as a prelude to the local premiere of Russel Thompson’s Cape Town-based feature, Sexy Girls.
Hardly a person in the audience was left without a tear in the eye or a lump in the throat after experiencing Maseko’s tragic and gritty tale of a young streetkid (Bafana Matutu) who, against the counsel of his bad-ass buddies, befriends a foreigner (Koffi Kouakou Gervais) who can’t sell his vegetables on the mean streets of Hillbrow without being abused and insulted by locals.
Brilliantly shot by Giulio Biccari, its idiosyncratic and true-to-life images of the Hillbrow streets and Ponte tower burn themselves indelibly into the memory of the viewer.
The Foreigner was funded by Channel 4 and La Sept/Arte, with a contribution from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. It was screened on both French and German national television last year on ZDF/Arte.
It has been bought by the SABC, but producer Jeremy Nathan is unable to say when the national broadcaster plans to screen it. Ster-Kinekor also intends to screen it at some stage, though the date has not been set.
The Foreigner won second prize in the short film section at the Festival di Cinema African in Milan, Italy. It was screened on the eve of South Africa’s game against France during the World Cup soccer. The film has also been screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival, the New York African Film Festival and the Urban World Film Festival, among others.
It has also been invited to the BBC Short
Film Festival, the Carthage Film Festival and other festivals.