STORY OF A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
Jan Vrijman Fund: Films by Developing Country Filmmakers

Apartheid ended in 1990. The troubled, segregated homeland that black South African Khalo Matabane remembers from his childhood does not exist. Raised with the belief that to learn about life, one must go on a journey, Matabane sets out to explore the shifting identity of this country with no roadmap for the future.

Shooting entirely from the front seat of a minibus taxi, he captures the physical beauty of his native landscape through a large rear window. He interviews passengers, regardless of race or economic status, about contemporary social issues in South Africa. A young woman questions the reality of true reconciliation in such a short period of time; an interracial couple ponders the idea of starting a family; a silent, middle-aged woman visits the grave of her son (a victim of post-apartheid racial violence by right-wing extremists). These interviews provide no easy answers, but perhaps even more questions--can a young and diverse population overcome the many years of racial discrimination and violence? Does extreme prejudice still affect people in their everyday lives?

Matabane is not in a hurry to get answers; he lets silences speak for themselves. Few words can describe the inherently personal, indefinable process of reconciliation and closure. He has captured a melodic, moving, portrait of the faces of the new South Africa.

Mary Kerr

Khalo Matabane is an award-winning director whose films about South Africa include TWO DECADES STILL, a look at the 1976 uprising in Soweto 20 years after; THE WAITERS, stories of hope about people waiting for lost family members to return home after being caught in the political crossfire of South Africa; and YOUNG LIONS, about three former youth activists at the center of the struggle in the 1980s. Matabane's work has brought him international acclaim. In 2004 he gave creative writing courses at the National Electronic and Media Institute of South Africa.

Print Source:
Lori Fried, First Run/Icarus Films
32 Court St, 21st Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: 718.488.8900
Fax: 718.488.8642
Email: lori@frif.com

Thursday 6/16 at 5:30 p.m.

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