(A
scene from “Asinamali!”)
Asinamali! the much-anticipated film by Mbongeni Ngema, will be the closing
film of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), one of the biggest
festivals of its kind and the longest running film festival in Africa. The film
will screen at Ster-Kinekor Gateway in Umhlanga on July 23.
Mbongeni Ngema occupies a unique space in
theatre history as an auteur of celebrated stage play musicals and he now
brings that talent to his first film, based on his seminal work of the same
name. It’s a tale filled with immense vitality, sadness and humour, combining
exhilarating dance and acting with awe-inspiring choral music.
Inspired by events surrounding the 1983
rent boycott in Lamontville township in Durban, the narrative follows a group
of prisoners as they think back on their pasts and the events leading to their
arrests. The hardship of prison life is told through the experiences of the
inmates, whose lives are made even more difficult by sadistic prison warder
Sergeant Mgwaqaza (Boitumelo Chuck Shisana).
At the same time, the prison authorities
are under pressure to accommodate Comrade Washington (Mbongeni Ngema), an
exiled MK soldier working for Amnesty International, who is running drama
workshops with the inmates at the notorious Durban Central Prison. He is
thwarted at every turn by Mgwaqaza, who makes it impossible for him to carry
out his duties. Comrade Washington has an additional agenda, to see the love of
his life. Her name is Soweto (Danica de la Rey) and she languishes in the
Female Section of the prison, soon to be transferred to death row in Pretoria
for her MK cross-border activities.
Washington believes in the power of music
and theatre to transform the lives of people: the political activists, the
criminals and even the hardened servants of the apartheid regime. Through sheer
determination, he outsmarts the prison authorities, manipulating those around
him into allowing him to create a play which depicts how they came to land in
prison. It represents triumph over adversity, with the theatrical musical
explosion becoming their ticket to freedom.
Produced by Christianne Bennetto and
Oscar-nominated Darrel James Roodt, the film version of this seminal musical
has Ngema at the helm of a production to which he has dedicated many years of
his life. The film's executive producer, David Dison, first worked on Asinamali with Ngema when it was a stage
play at the Market Theatre. Together, they now bring this inspiring story to
the big screen, and a wider audience.
Asinamali! features an original soundtrack by Ngema.
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