South Africa's first western, Five Fingers for Marseilles, opens on April
6. The official trailer is now revealed.
This year, 2018, is turning out to be an
exciting year for South African film. Five
Fingers for Marseilles, a western that tells the story of a group of young
men (the ‘Five Fingers’) who stand up to brutal police oppression in
Marseilles, a town in the rugged badlands of the Eastern Cape.
It tells the story of Tau, who kills two
policemen, and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. When he gets out, the
embittered ‘Lion of Marseilles’ discovers his comrades are now in prominent
positions in the town. But there’s also a vicious new threat afoot, and so Tau
must reform the Five Fingers and take on old allies and new enemies.
The film made its world premiere at the
2017 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at Fantastic
Fest, BFI London Film Festival, and the Palm Springs International Film
Festival. Since then, it has been receiving rave reviews.
After it screened at Fantastic Fest in
Austin, Texas, in late September, a festival review spoke of the world of the
film as “a gorgeous, complex world,” calling ‘Five Fingers for Marseilles’ one
of the most striking debuts of recent years and naming it part of “a wave that
will completely redefine the international perception of what African cinema
can be.”
Five
Fingers for Marseilles is the feature directorial
debut of Michael Matthews, and the feature screenwriting debut of Sean Drummond.
The film is produced by Asger Hussain and Yaron Schwartzman of Game 7 Films and
Sean Drummond/Michael Matthews of Be Phat Motel Film Company. Dylan Voogt of
Stage 5 Films is co-producer, and Paulo Areal and Dumi Gumbi serve as executive
producers.
Casting began five years before production,
with multiple generations of South African talent joining the project, from
veteran stars Jerry Mofokeng, Kenneth Nkosi, Hamilton Dhlamini and Mduduzi
Mabaso to relative newcomers Lizwi Vilakazi and Warren Masemola. Vuyo Dabula,
star of television’s Generations,
steps into a career-defining lead role, carrying the film with flair, opposite
Zethu Dlomo, fresh from her starring role in US drama series Black Sails. Dean Fourie, Kenneth Fok,
Brendon Daniels, Anthony Oseyemi, Garth Breytenbach, Tseko Monaheng, and Mosili
Makuta round out a stellar supporting cast.
Written in English, the film was always
intended to play in a local language and Basotho screenwriter Mamokuena Makhema
came on board as a translator and cultural advisor, consulting on language,
culture and nuance, and ensuring the dialogue in Sesotho captured the poetry
and depth of the original script.
Actors were given the freedom to look at
their own lines and translations, too, and the film was written with the
intention of allowing silence, allowing for removing dialogue and letting
scenes play with emotional beats as per the script, but not necessarily the
words themselves.
The film will have its African premiere at
Rapid Lion, the upcoming South African International Film Festival, and it will
open at cinemas nationwide on April 6. Five
Fingers for Marseilles is distributed in South Africa by Indigenous Film
Distribution.
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