iZulu Lami/ My Secret Sky (drama)
South Africa, 2009, 90min, English Subtitles
Director: Madoda Ncayiyana
www.mysecretsky.com

When ten-year old Tembi and eight-year old Kwezi lose their mother, their aunt comes to 'take care' of them. Unfortunately, once she's sold the family's possessions and fled, the children are left with nothing apart from a traditional Zulu mat, which their mother had been working on when she died.

Taking their destiny in her hands, Tembi convinces her young brother that they should hitch to the big city. When they arrive in the city, they find themselves adrift in a terrifying metropolis until they are ‘adopted’ by a street-wise 12-year-old, Chilli-Bite, and his gang.

iZulu Lami is an action filled journey tale that delicately balances innocence and despair set in the magical world of Durban’s invisible underground.
Courtesy of DV8

Shirley Adams (drama)

This debut feature from Oliver Hermanus is an intimate study of quiet desperation. The film tells the story of Mitchell’s Plain resident Shirley Adams. Her husband has abandoned her and she spends her days looking after her only son, who is left partially paralysed after being shot in the neck.

Without ever resorting to melodrama, the 25-year-old Hermanus has created a low-key masterpiece that would sit comfortably in the company of work by Mike Leigh, Ken Loach or the Dardennes.
Courtesy of DV8

Awards

• Durban International Film Festival 2009-Best South African Feature Film
• Durban International Film Festival 2009-Best First Feature Film
• Durban International Film Festival 2009-Best Actress

Skin (drama)

Skin tells the true story of a black woman born to a white family in South Africa during the height of apartheid. For Sandra, who is classified as white, the fact that she has a different skin colour to the rest of her family is not an issue, until she attends a “white” school. When the school expels her, her father (Sam Neill) takes on the National Party government in a surreal bid to prove his daughter’s whiteness. But when Sandra (Sophie Okenedo) decides to go out with a black man, her father’s real sympathies are revealed.
Courtesy of National Film and Video Foundation

Awards

• Palm Beach International Film Festival 2009–Jury Award, Best Feature Film
• AFI Dallas International Film Festival 2009–Audience Award
• Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival 2009– Audience Award + Jury Award
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2009– Audience Choice Award
• Time for Peace Film and Music Awards 2008/2009–Best First Film