SA movie premieres at Swiss film fest

The South African production B(l)ind The Sacrifice was one of 20 short films selected from over 4,000 submissions to compete in the Pardi di Domani section at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland last week. The section is dedicated to showcasing innovative work from emerging filmmakers.

The film brings together three award-winning filmmakers: musician, actor and novelist Nakhane, and producers Cait Pansegrouw and Elias Ribeiro of Urucu Media.

“The story was sparked by the notion of the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, and primarily how Isaac must have felt being offered to God as a sacrifice by his father,” says Nakhane, who wrote and directed the movie.

“The film looks at masculinity/patriarchy – and the power it wields – gone mad. I had to imagine the Biblical Abraham, the initial patriarch, as a ‘real’ person and, in so doing, I was forced to wonder what would happen if he didn’t get away with what he did.

“Imaging that his power, so mad, that he has convinced his family and his three servants to live their lives as nomads with no choice but to obey him. And so I ask – what would happen if we nipped all of this patriarchal lineage by killing him?”

Nakhane previously garnered international recognition for a star performance in Inxeba (The Wound), SA’s submission for the Oscars in 2018. Pansegrouw and Ribeiro have produced numerous award-winning films, including Inxeba, Train of Salt and Sugar, and This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection.

Pansegrouw says: “It’s always a joy to sit in the dark and experience your film with an audience for the first time. Over 600 people were in the cinema at the premiere and they responded beautifully to our film. It’s given us even more motivation to expand this story into a feature film.”

The cast includes Sihle Shona Mnqwazana, Nandi Nyembe, and Treasure Nkosi.

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