VIDEO: Locals help produce Cape Town indie film with strong message
Cut-Out Girls is the story of how six young women's lives are altered by the actions of two aspiring sportsmen. The independent film has a very important message especially as 16 days of activism against gender-based violence approaches.
Two locals who served as executive producers on the independent student film Cut-Out Girls are excited about the film’s release on 22 November.
The film, written and directed by Nicola Hannekom, was originally a stage production in Cape Town.
Nicola and Salomé van Diemen from Pretoria had also served as producers on, Dis ek Anna, another film that Hannekom was involved in.
“Cut-Out Girls was written by Nicola for her second-year drama students about four years ago,” said executive producer Salomé van Diemen.
“The production was so well received that they decided to turn it into a screenplay and eventually a student film.”
Salomé explained how, despite a limited budget and production crew, the film was shot in Cape Town over the course of just three weeks.
“The film centres around the use of the so-called ‘date rape drug’,” she said.
“The concept of ‘cut out girls’ refers to the paper dolls which we used to make as kids where you would fold a piece of paper, cut out a girl and pull the paper apart forming a line of girls.
“The idea is that, for the date rape drug user, the girls he rapes become almost faceless and just the next in a line of victims in his mind.
“For the girls, it’s almost like it takes their identity from them.”
The film also explores concepts such as how the power the drug gives the perpetrator over his victims becomes a sort of drug to him as well, according to Salomé.
READ MORE: Affies takes stand against gender violence
“This is the type of movie you want anyone who is starting to club or go out with their friends to see, to warn them of the dangers.
“We are often so used to saying, ‘when we’ve had a glass too much, that our drinks have been spiked’.
“This film showcases the real dangers that are out there for both the victim and perpetrator.”
Salomé said the goal of the film was also to not be specific to any group of people or any location.
“What happens here can happen to anyone regardless of who they are or where they stay and that was Nicola’s message from the start.”
Nicola said at one stage, during the film, one of the two perpetrators realised every decision he made was the wrong one.
“It serves as a warning: if you find yourself at the crossroads and you keep making the same mistakes, you have to be careful,” he said.
Nicola said the students and the independent film had a very important message especially as the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence approaches.
“It isn’t a documentary or educational film,” said Nico.
“The film made use of crowd-funding for a lot of the editing but you won’t say that when you see it. It looks like any professional film.
“We wanted to get involved because you can see the work and effort Nicola and the students put into it and for only their friends and family to see it might make it seem futile.
“With Dis ek Anna we saw how a movie like this can touch the lives of those who see it and we saw the power of film as medium.”
The film will show at the Pretoria’s Brooklyn Nouveau theatre starting on 22 November.
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