Still Born

A short film omnibus featuring the work of five directors representing five countries involved in the 2017 BRICS summit, an annual international relations conference held between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The collection—taking the concept of time as a unifying theme—depicts the economic, political, and social alienations and contradictions that create, compound, and structure issues as wide-ranging as poverty, class stratification, and homeless; familial distress; spousal abuse; and natural disaster.

Nelisa Vena’s life has never been the same since the death of her sister Anathi. On the last day of their high school careers, she and three friends from a township in East London, South Africa, embark on a life-defining road trip by stealing a taxi and heading to the remote landmark of Hole in the Wall, where Xhosa legend has it you can talk to the dead.

After engaging in an illicit affair with one of his pupils, teacher Parker Sithole spirals into an abyss of obsession that eventually turns to murder. A cinephile's passionate homage to classic film noir, Of Good Report is a serial killer origins story about how a social misfit turns into an inadequate man hellbent on satisfying his shameful lust. It is Little Red Riding Hood, told from the wolf's perspective.

Set in South Africa's rural Great-Karoo region in the 1950's this epic existential-adventure film chronicles the exploits of the outlaw John Kepe and the various individuals his escapades affected. This Robin-hood-esque figure would steal primarily livestock from the white settler farmers, terrorizing them for over a decade. Led by the hardliner General Botha, a mammoth manhunt ensues in the very mountain where Kepe was rumored to occupy a Noah's Ark like cave. This spectacle ingratiated Kepe in the hearts of the marginalized indigenous-population who turn Kepe's miscreant deeds into the stuff of legend making him a threat to the very fabric of the colonial society. Sew the Winter to my Skin is a thrilling, operatic ride into the heart of Pre-Apartheid South Africa and is a visceral exploration of the effects of the colonial displacement that sewed the seeds for one of the most viciously racist, political regimes in history.

An aging, womanizing professional boxer and his career-criminal brother take one last shot at success and get more than they've bargained for.

Somewhere in a remote part of South Africa a heinous crime is committed. Against the backdrop of xenophobic riots that have swept across the country, two Zimbabwean brothers along with a local girl are brutally attacked. The older brother is burnt alive whilst his younger sibling and the girl are sodomised, raped and left for dead. Three investigators from the elite crime fighting unit known as the Scorpions are deployed to a small town called Descent.

A man lies in the front seat of a car, dying. His chest has been ripped open by the savage onslaught of a bullet. A gaping hole in the back windscreen bears testimony to the fatal attack. Paralysed by his own mortality, Shogun Khumalo cannot move. In his last moments of life he finds himself romancing with reflection. With his outer reality rapidly slowing down, he starts running towards his own labyrinth of contemplation.