Exclusive: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it here below.
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
- 8/17/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
South Africa has chosen Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s “Knuckle City” as its official entry in the Oscars’ International Feature Film category. The movie had its international premiere this week in the Contemporary World Cinema section in Toronto.
“Knuckle City” tells the story of Dudu Nyakama (Bongile Mantsai), an aging boxer whose shot at a big prize fight offers him one last chance at saving his family but drags him into the criminal underbelly of the gritty township he’s spent his life trying to escape. The film’s selection for Oscars contention was announced Tuesday by the National Film & Video Foundation (Nfvf). It world-premiered at the Durban Intl. Film Festival.
Qubeka was also chosen last year to represent South Africa in the Oscar race, with “Sew the Winter to My Skin.” For “Knuckle City,” his fourth feature, he returned to his childhood home of Mdantsane, the township known as South Africa’s boxing mecca,...
“Knuckle City” tells the story of Dudu Nyakama (Bongile Mantsai), an aging boxer whose shot at a big prize fight offers him one last chance at saving his family but drags him into the criminal underbelly of the gritty township he’s spent his life trying to escape. The film’s selection for Oscars contention was announced Tuesday by the National Film & Video Foundation (Nfvf). It world-premiered at the Durban Intl. Film Festival.
Qubeka was also chosen last year to represent South Africa in the Oscar race, with “Sew the Winter to My Skin.” For “Knuckle City,” his fourth feature, he returned to his childhood home of Mdantsane, the township known as South Africa’s boxing mecca,...
- 9/10/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
South Africa has selected Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Knuckle City as its submission for the international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.
The film, which won a best actor prize for star Bongile Mantsai at South Africa's Durban Film Festival, is currently playing in Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section.
The story follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The two are sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster who have followed in their father's footsteps in different ways. They team up to create one last shot at fame ...
The film, which won a best actor prize for star Bongile Mantsai at South Africa's Durban Film Festival, is currently playing in Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section.
The story follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The two are sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster who have followed in their father's footsteps in different ways. They team up to create one last shot at fame ...
- 9/10/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
South Africa has selected Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Knuckle City as its submission for the international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.
The film, which won a best actor prize for star Bongile Mantsai at South Africa's Durban Film Festival, is currently playing in Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section.
The story follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The two are sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster who have followed in their father's footsteps in different ways. They team up to create one last shot at fame ...
The film, which won a best actor prize for star Bongile Mantsai at South Africa's Durban Film Festival, is currently playing in Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section.
The story follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The two are sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster who have followed in their father's footsteps in different ways. They team up to create one last shot at fame ...
- 9/10/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
It’s 1994 and young Dudu and Duke have little in the way of inspiring role models to build lives for themselves in Mdantsane, South Africa. Apartheid is over and Nelson Mandela is president, but they’re taking notes from a father (Zolosa Xaluva’s Art Nyakama) raving about how “real men” take care of their family despite cheating on his wife with teenagers and barely knowing what his sons are doing or where they are at any moment. What he means by “protection” is the willingness to steal, cheat, and kill—to prove himself better than the next man trying to follow the law or daring to interfere with what he has ownership over. When escape is only possible through the boxing ring, jail, or death, possessions become identity.
Nobody should then be surprised about where these boys find themselves in 2019 as two halves of the same chip off the old block.
Nobody should then be surprised about where these boys find themselves in 2019 as two halves of the same chip off the old block.
- 9/8/2019
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Aaa Entertainment handles international sales on South Africa-set boxing drama.
Morris Ruskin and Jordan Walker-Pearlman’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts will launch North American sales in Toronto on festival selection and boxing drama Knuckle City.
South African writer-director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film receives its international premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on Saturday Sept. 7 and stars Bongile Mantsai as a struggling boxer who battles the system and his corrupt younger brother with the aim of lifting his family out of poverty.
Layla Swart produced the film, which premiered at Durban International Film festival in July.
Morris Ruskin and Jordan Walker-Pearlman’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts will launch North American sales in Toronto on festival selection and boxing drama Knuckle City.
South African writer-director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film receives its international premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on Saturday Sept. 7 and stars Bongile Mantsai as a struggling boxer who battles the system and his corrupt younger brother with the aim of lifting his family out of poverty.
Layla Swart produced the film, which premiered at Durban International Film festival in July.
- 8/30/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Durban–“Les Misérables,” French director Ladj Ly’s riveting portrayal of racial division and unrest in the banlieues of Paris, won best picture at the 40th Durban Intl. Film Festival Tuesday night.
The jury described the film, which shared the jury prize in Cannes this year, as “a searing portrait of modern France which takes on issues of police brutality, racial tension, and of generations who keep repeating the same mistakes,” heralding its “raw power and complex ideas” while calling it “a piece of bravura filmmaking.” “Les Misérables” also won the award for best screenplay.
Ly’s incendiary film set the tone for a closing ceremony that, as it commemorated Diff’s 40th edition, offered a reminder that a festival born in a spirit of protest against the injustices of apartheid still had a vital role to play in the shaping of the South African and African conscience.
“Diff has...
The jury described the film, which shared the jury prize in Cannes this year, as “a searing portrait of modern France which takes on issues of police brutality, racial tension, and of generations who keep repeating the same mistakes,” heralding its “raw power and complex ideas” while calling it “a piece of bravura filmmaking.” “Les Misérables” also won the award for best screenplay.
Ly’s incendiary film set the tone for a closing ceremony that, as it commemorated Diff’s 40th edition, offered a reminder that a festival born in a spirit of protest against the injustices of apartheid still had a vital role to play in the shaping of the South African and African conscience.
“Diff has...
- 7/24/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
To mark the release of The Wound on 18th June, we’ve been given 3 copies to give on DVD.
Set in South Africa, The Wound explores tradition and sexuality amidst the Xhosa culture. Each year, the tribe’s young men are brought to the Eastern Cape to participate in an ancient coming-of-age ritual. Xolani (Nakhane) a quiet and sensitive factory worker is assigned to initiate Kwanda (Niza Jay Ncoyini), a city boy from Johannesburg sent by his father to be toughened up through this rite of passage into manhood. As Kwanda defiantly negotiates his queer identity within this masculine environment, he quickly recognizes the nature of Xolani’s relationship with fellow guide Vija (Bongile Mantsai). The three men commence a dangerous dance with each other and their own desires and, soon, the threat of exposure elevates the tension to breaking point.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents...
Set in South Africa, The Wound explores tradition and sexuality amidst the Xhosa culture. Each year, the tribe’s young men are brought to the Eastern Cape to participate in an ancient coming-of-age ritual. Xolani (Nakhane) a quiet and sensitive factory worker is assigned to initiate Kwanda (Niza Jay Ncoyini), a city boy from Johannesburg sent by his father to be toughened up through this rite of passage into manhood. As Kwanda defiantly negotiates his queer identity within this masculine environment, he quickly recognizes the nature of Xolani’s relationship with fellow guide Vija (Bongile Mantsai). The three men commence a dangerous dance with each other and their own desires and, soon, the threat of exposure elevates the tension to breaking point.
Please note: This competition is open to UK residents...
- 6/13/2018
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In his groundbreaking Oscar-nominated film The Wound, director John Trengove deals with themes relating to tradition and masculinity in modern South Africa. Staring openly gay actor Nakhane Touré, the film offers a brave and honest depiction of a gay love story between two men who have devoted their existence to helping maintain a tradition in which young men are brought into the wilderness each year to undergo the act of circumcision.
Touré is Xolani (nicknamed X), a quiet and lonely factory worker whose life has been dominated by his own standing as a closeted gay man living within the constraints of the traditional Xhosa community. In the hope of being reconciled with a former lover named Vija (Bongile Mantsai), each year X makes his way into the wilderness in order to mentor a group of young boys brought in by their fathers to undergo a traditional rite of passage which...
Touré is Xolani (nicknamed X), a quiet and lonely factory worker whose life has been dominated by his own standing as a closeted gay man living within the constraints of the traditional Xhosa community. In the hope of being reconciled with a former lover named Vija (Bongile Mantsai), each year X makes his way into the wilderness in order to mentor a group of young boys brought in by their fathers to undergo a traditional rite of passage which...
- 4/27/2018
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The cut only only takes a fraction of a second, but the trauma it leaves behind takes a lifetime to heal. It happens every winter, as teenage boys of South Africa’s Xhosa culture are spirited up to the hills around their hometowns, stripped down and smothered in ghostly white paint, and told to spread their legs. Their foreskins are then sliced away by tribal surgeons, many of whom use rusted knives rather than sterile medical equipment. All the same, it’s absolutely forbidden for the initiates to scream out in pain. This is a rite of passage, the start of a three-week initiation ritual meant to confer manhood — boys cry, but men suffer in silence. As Nelson Mandela wrote in his memoir: “An uncircumcised Xhosa man is a contradiction in terms.”
Ukwaluka is a time-honored practice; it began long before Mandela himself endured the experience in 1934, and it still...
Ukwaluka is a time-honored practice; it began long before Mandela himself endured the experience in 1934, and it still...
- 8/16/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Winner of the International Jury Prize at Outfest Los Angeles, the debut feature of director John Trengove comes to the Film Forum in N.Y. August 16 and The Laemmle Royal in L.A. September 8.
“The Wound” by John Trengove has legs, beginning its trek at Sundance World Cinema Competition, proceeding to the Rotterdam Film Fest Tiger Competition and then going onward to the Berlinale Panorama as its Opening Night Film.
In a mountainous corner of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, an age-old Xhosa ritual introducing adolescent boys to manhood continues to this day. Addressing the narrow depiction of black masculinity in South African Cinema, it is a tough and strong film of two men in the midst of the rite of passage of circumcision in which they are caregivers for the male adolescents. And they are also gay, something that must be kept quiet and unsaid.
This is the...
“The Wound” by John Trengove has legs, beginning its trek at Sundance World Cinema Competition, proceeding to the Rotterdam Film Fest Tiger Competition and then going onward to the Berlinale Panorama as its Opening Night Film.
In a mountainous corner of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, an age-old Xhosa ritual introducing adolescent boys to manhood continues to this day. Addressing the narrow depiction of black masculinity in South African Cinema, it is a tough and strong film of two men in the midst of the rite of passage of circumcision in which they are caregivers for the male adolescents. And they are also gay, something that must be kept quiet and unsaid.
This is the...
- 7/20/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The debut feature of director John Trengove comes to theaters in the U.S. August 16, brought to you by Kino-Lorber Films. “The Wound” is the only film ever to world premiere in Sundance, continue into Hivos Tiger Competition in Rotterdam and then play Opening Night at the Berlinale Panorama.
In a mountainous corner of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, an age-old Xhosa ritual introducing adolescent boys to manhood continues to this day.
This is the backdrop for the stark and stirring first feature by John Trengove, in which Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by musician Nakhane Touré), travels to a remote mountain camp in South Africa to tend teenage boys going through a traditional Xhola rite of passage. This year, Xolani is assigned to mentor Kwanda, a coddled Jo’burg boy who challenges the customs of the camp and is ostracized by other initiates. Kwanda, as observant as he is insolent,...
In a mountainous corner of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, an age-old Xhosa ritual introducing adolescent boys to manhood continues to this day.
This is the backdrop for the stark and stirring first feature by John Trengove, in which Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by musician Nakhane Touré), travels to a remote mountain camp in South Africa to tend teenage boys going through a traditional Xhola rite of passage. This year, Xolani is assigned to mentor Kwanda, a coddled Jo’burg boy who challenges the customs of the camp and is ostracized by other initiates. Kwanda, as observant as he is insolent,...
- 6/6/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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