‘Briefcase’ to showcase at Tala film festival

By Rosalia David

RECENTLY premiered short film Briefcase will be showcased at the Tala Namibia festival scheduled to take place from May 12 to 17.
This was revealed by producer Gustav Nuuyoma after the film’s premiere which took place at FNCC last weekend.
“Now that the premiere is done, we will be focusing of film festivals. We are starting off with the best screening platform already which is the upcoming local Tala Film Festival. We also plan on definitely going to do regional screenings in due time and looking into few online streaming platforms options as well,” he said.

Tala Namibia is an online festival, delivered by a group of local producers and filmmakers in partnership with the Namibian Film Commission and Nuella TV.
During the seven days of the festival, audiences will get the opportunity to watch and vote for their favourite submissions. The categories to be voted are fiction, documentaries, children’s content, animation, music videos and live performance videos (including stand-up comedy, theatre performances, dance, TikTok and homemade content).
Nuuyoma further expressed enthusiasm towards the film being part of the festival saying that it will open up doors for them.
Briefcase is a local film about a retired United States marine, Tom Smith who is in Namibia to complete a business deal, then his worst fears become real when his wife tells him that she wants a divorce.
While driving disturbed by the news, he drives off the road to rethink the decision of his wife but where he parks to get a breather, is a hotspot for hijackers.
The criminals then grab his personal briefcase containing all the important documents including N$50 000 in cash. After that, Smith is determined to do anything to reclaim his case.
Speaking on the premiere, Nuuyoma said the event was attended by different film enthusiasts who gave good reviews about the film.
“On Friday we had, a very successful premiere at FNCC. We did three screenings on the day because of Covid-19, but all the screenings were fully sold out. People love the movie, they are calling it amazing but the problem is that it is a short film. The public came out of the screening asking for a sequel, some especially from the last screening during the Q and A have even given a few suggestions on how to continue the story for the sequel,” he noted.
Apart from the film being about Smith losing his documents, Nuuyoma added that the storyline is also inspired by day to day events in Windhoek.
Pointing out another aspect about the movie, Nuuyoma said, “It was just an ordinary day in Windhoek that just turned out to be a bad day for our main character Tom. It is a story of determination, greed and underestimation.”
Touching base on the shooting experience, Nuuyoma highlighted the struggles they had to go through to complete the production phase saying that it was not a walk in the park.
“We shot for about a month and a few weeks, this is because we were only shooting during weekends, due to the budget and the fact that we couldn’t let the cast take leave from work. The weather and funds were definitely the other challenges,” he added.

Briefcase was written and directed by Leonard Tshikesho.