Namibian short films to look out for
By Rosalia David
OVER the past three years, a number of local short films were celebrated on international platforms while receiving positive reviews and winning several awards at international film festivals.
This week Confidente rounds-off some of the locally produced films to look out for.
Film maker Lavinia Kapewasha premiered her short film titled Iitandu (Pieces) at the National Theatre of Namibia in 2020 – a film set in post-apocalyptic Namibia exploring traditions, modernity, food security, cooperation and tension all within the context of the country’s past, present and future.
Iitandu was nominated for the 2021 Pan African Youths Film and Arts Festival.
Multiple award-winning Namibian film ‘Baxu and the Giants’ (2019) made history when it became the first local film to be screened on Netflix.
Baxu and the Giants was co-written by Girley Jazama and Florian Schott, who also directs the film and was commissioned by the Legal Assistance Centre and produced by Andrew Botelle with the aim of sensitising teenagers about rhino poaching in Namibia.
Last year, the Goethe-Institut Namibia premiered three local films including ‘The Game’, a thriller about a couple caught in an unlikely predicament and ‘Mukumu’, which deals with themes of sexuality and identity both in the home and at school.
Another film is by Lloyd Winini titled ‘Sacred Places’ – a story of an adventure taking an unusual turn.
A short film titled ‘Kapana’ won an award for the best narrative feature at the DC Black Film Festival in the United States.
Kapana tells the story of two young Namibian men who have nothing in common and yet, against all odds, they fall in love while exploring themes around love, secrecy, fears and commitment. Kapana looks at the fabric of Namibian society and some of the fears of what is morally acceptable.
Meanwhile in 2019, ‘The White Line’ took awards at the Seventh African Emerging Filmmakers Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography.
The 99-minute film is a story of hope borne from love grown in a forbidding time. The story is set in 1963; three years after the Old Location uprising that shook then South West Africa. It portrays a white police officer, who falls in love with a black maid. Their love for each other grows over time through the letters they write to each other.