Wendy Bednarz’s “Yellow Bus,” which follows a mother’s quest for justice after suffering an unthinkable tragedy, won the prize for best film at the Joburg Film Festival during an award ceremony Saturday night at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg.
The film, which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, is set in an unnamed Arabian Gulf country and follows an Indian family that endures a tragedy when their daughter is neglected on a school bus in the sweltering desert heat. Consumed by grief, mother Anada (Tannishtha Chatterjee) sets out to find the truth about who is accountable.
In its citation for the prize-winning film, the jury noted: “This film spoke to the core challenges faced by marginalized immigrants. The protagonist’s nuanced performance brought to light the resilience and determination needed when an individual faces a social-political system.”
Bednarz was not in attendance to accept the award.
The film, which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, is set in an unnamed Arabian Gulf country and follows an Indian family that endures a tragedy when their daughter is neglected on a school bus in the sweltering desert heat. Consumed by grief, mother Anada (Tannishtha Chatterjee) sets out to find the truth about who is accountable.
In its citation for the prize-winning film, the jury noted: “This film spoke to the core challenges faced by marginalized immigrants. The protagonist’s nuanced performance brought to light the resilience and determination needed when an individual faces a social-political system.”
Bednarz was not in attendance to accept the award.
- 3/3/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When the film biz jetset lands at O.R Tambo airport for this week’s 6th Joburg Film Festival they’d be amazed by a little-known story of how the airport’s namesake was the mastermind behind a plan to recruit ordinary British working-class volunteers to travel to South Africa and detonate pamphlet bombs in the 1970s during the height of Apartheid.
The fascinating story has been made into a thrilling documentary by director Gordon Main, “London Recruits,” featuring interviews with those who went, interspersed with Super 8 archive footage and dramatic reenactments. It is the festival opener.
Based on the 2012 book, the U.K.’s Barefoot Rascals teamed up with producer Robyn Slovo, daughter of Joe Slovo, who was a major figure in South Africa’s anti-Apartheid struggle, as well as Jacintha de Nobrega’s Arclight Productions in South Africa.
The result is an edge-of-your-seat documentary thriller set in the early 1970s,...
The fascinating story has been made into a thrilling documentary by director Gordon Main, “London Recruits,” featuring interviews with those who went, interspersed with Super 8 archive footage and dramatic reenactments. It is the festival opener.
Based on the 2012 book, the U.K.’s Barefoot Rascals teamed up with producer Robyn Slovo, daughter of Joe Slovo, who was a major figure in South Africa’s anti-Apartheid struggle, as well as Jacintha de Nobrega’s Arclight Productions in South Africa.
The result is an edge-of-your-seat documentary thriller set in the early 1970s,...
- 2/26/2024
- by Thinus Ferreira
- Variety Film + TV
Following on the heels of a successful post-pandemic reboot one year ago, the Joburg Film Festival kicks off its sixth edition on Feb. 27, with the glitzy capital of South Africa’s media and entertainment industry showcasing a selection of top talents from the host country and across the African continent.
The event opens with the world premiere of Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits,” a film that sheds light on a pivotal moment in the South African liberation struggle, and wraps March 3 with the premiere of “Snake,” a psychological thriller from veteran filmmaker Meg Rickards.
After returning to Johannesburg cinemas last year for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this year’s edition looks to grow the event’s footprint, increasing the number of festival venues as well as the amount of films on offer, with a program that includes more than 60 titles from 30-plus countries.
The event opens with the world premiere of Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits,” a film that sheds light on a pivotal moment in the South African liberation struggle, and wraps March 3 with the premiere of “Snake,” a psychological thriller from veteran filmmaker Meg Rickards.
After returning to Johannesburg cinemas last year for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this year’s edition looks to grow the event’s footprint, increasing the number of festival venues as well as the amount of films on offer, with a program that includes more than 60 titles from 30-plus countries.
- 2/26/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits” has been tapped as the opening film at the sixth Joburg Film Festival, which takes place Feb. 27 – March 3 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa‘s history, when the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won.
The film is produced by Jacintha de Nobrega (“Deep End”), Robyn Slovo, Geoff Arbourne, Colin Charles (“The Surveyor”), James Barrett (“A Change in the Weather”) and Felix Gill (“78/52″). As Variety previously reported, XYZ Films is repping the doc’s North American sales.
Earlier this week,...
The film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa‘s history, when the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won.
The film is produced by Jacintha de Nobrega (“Deep End”), Robyn Slovo, Geoff Arbourne, Colin Charles (“The Surveyor”), James Barrett (“A Change in the Weather”) and Felix Gill (“78/52″). As Variety previously reported, XYZ Films is repping the doc’s North American sales.
Earlier this week,...
- 2/14/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
XYZ Films will represent documentary “London Recruits” for North American sales, it was revealed at the ongoing Durban FilmMart.
Directed by Gordon Main, the film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history. In 1970, the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won.
To mark the partnership, Ronnie Kasrils, now 86, the former underground African National Congress (Anc) freedom fighter at the heart of the story, participated in detonating a bucket “leaflet bomb” outside the market hotel. These were the devices deployed in 1970 by amateur secret agents that Kasrils recruited in London on orders from Tambo.
Directed by Gordon Main, the film sheds light on a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history. In 1970, the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa developed a new secret weapon. Oliver Tambo hatched a plan to infiltrate young British activists into the country, posing as tourists. Their mission, in the face of brutal lockdown by the racist regime, was to help inspire ordinary South Africans to join a liberation movement that would never give up till freedom was won.
To mark the partnership, Ronnie Kasrils, now 86, the former underground African National Congress (Anc) freedom fighter at the heart of the story, participated in detonating a bucket “leaflet bomb” outside the market hotel. These were the devices deployed in 1970 by amateur secret agents that Kasrils recruited in London on orders from Tambo.
- 7/23/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
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