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Thabo Mothibi, Managing Editor, thabo@ncnn.live
Kimberley born film director Jerome Pikwane is setting his sights on international acclaim for his debut work The Tokoloshe which has already cracked 10 international film festivals between Europe and Asia.
In lifting the curtains with humility, Pikwane opted for Kimberley’s Ster Kinekor for the movie’s premiere, drawing hordes of invited guests clad in glitz. Pikwane who has studied film directing in New York, got a resounding round of applause for his work which has certainly given a different dimension to South Africa’s film making.
The well-funded The Tokoloshe is a horror-psychological thriller which many South African movie-goers are not familiar with, but Pikwane asserts it was worth taking the risk.
“I think you have nothing to lose right now because it is still a young industry, you have to experiment.
“Horror films are a low investment high return for your business model and we hoping that the quality should speak for itself and that people would show up and see something that they haven’t seen before because ultimately people go to the movies to see something they have not seen before,” enthused Pikwane.
Despite The Tokoloshe having already garnered traction in being shown on the opening night of the local film industry’s renowned and historic Durban International Film Festival’s 39th edition which was held in July, Pikwane remains modest about his feat. The movie is now set for the cinema circuit release.
“The reception has been good, you have to settle into it and still find out what people think. Overtime the film still has to run its course.”
Above hoping to win a few awards and making money, Pikwane’s genuine preoccupation with The Tokoloshe is in it the showcasing of talent: “Most importantly we are hoping for the South African audiences to turn up because it is a South African film. It is a different type of film, taking a different direction, it is not what you would expect and hopefully people will like it.”
Pikwane’s directing craft sets him creatively levels above what could be expected of a debutant. The mystical tokoloshe is the demonic and nightmarish abuse of women that Pikwane and company artfully casts as a subject screaming for societal resolve. He co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Kunzmann.
The Tokoloshe stars the vivacious Petronella Tshuma (much known for Of Good Report and for her television role in Rhythm City) as Busisiwe the cleaner at a rundown psychiatric hospital. Having escaped her destitute rural life and an abusive father and in being desperate for money, she is drawn to unending vulnerability, exposed to a boss who she had to return to despite him having tried to rape her.
Busisiwe battles not only her demons but extends a helping hand to Gracie (Kwande Nkosi) a young teenage patient who is terrorised by a tokoloshe at the hospital. Upon her return home to bury her sister who had committed suicide, Busisiwe gets to deal with the past that she had been chained to and for little Gracie also has so much to deal with.
The movie wittily equates women’s struggles against patriarchy and all its related ills but does also call for self-introspection as pointed out by Leiden Colbert who the plays the character Rosie, a dedicated nurse.
“We all have our tokoloshe, we all have our challenges, we all have something inside trying to overpower us but in the end we can overpower it,” stated the actress.
“The storyline talks about the realities of patriarchy which are dominant in our society and which almost every woman can relate to across the racial lines. I was impressed,” said invited guest Nomonde Kesiamang.
At first it was Kimberley’s Trevor Stuurman who is now internationally renowned for capturing personalities such as former American president Barack Obama and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
The Tokoloshe’s brilliant director debut in filming making for another of our very own in Jerome Pikwane might just bring to the sounds of “lights, camera and action!!” to Kimberley, so believes Kesiamang whose desk at Sol Plaatje Municipality would be appropriate for a pitching of a proposal by Pikwane.
“When it comes to that it will be about the marketing of the city. There is a lot of products from townships to the !Xun and Khwe. It would encourage that in his next movie that he is involved in, he should look at that.”
By Thabo Mothibi
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Thabo Mothibi is a former broadcast journalist (TV and Radio) – with specialist reporting experience; SABC Political/Parliamentary and TRC Teams over a period of five years (1995 to 2000).
One key foreign assignment - is the 11-nation African Connection Rally – overland journey from Africa’s northern-most pole in the coastal Tunisian city of Bizerte to the southern-most pole in South Africa’s Cape Agulhas. From the journalistic years, Thabo then delved into Government media liaison and serving two former Ministers and three MECs. He became the Northern Cape Provincial Government’s first department based Communications Director at Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development - 2008-2010 – where he also served as Head of Ministry from 2003 – 2008.
As a former anti-apartheid activist, his political background and professional training aided him in spearheading the Northern Cape ANC’s 2004 National Elections media and publicity campaign and that of the 2006 Local Government Elections.
Whilst based in Waterkloof in Pretoria -2010 to end 2011, he consulted for Manstrat Agricultural Intelligence, then returned to the Northern Cape in 2012 to date, to consult independently and pursue other entrepreneurial interests in media and communications through KwaVuko Communications and Marketing.
Thabo Mothibi obtained his NQF7 through Wits University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) in Johannesburg, a Unilever Mandela Rhodes Academy for Marketing and Communications Academy (UMRA). The goal of the NQF7 programme was to educate and train public and private sector professional communicators and marketers in government communications..
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