New film helps to unearth new talent

POLOKWANE  – Khomelela is a Tsonga word that means “perseverance”, and is also the name of actor and director Fumani Shilubana‘s new film.

This epic tale was set in Nkowankowa village in Tzaneen and follows the life of Khomela, a young man faced with a dilemma when he can’t find work.

The first job he finds in three years pays very well, but there is a catch. To keep the job and go up the ranks, his new powerful boss wants to make him her “Ben 10”.

“We have just under two million Tsonga people in South Africa and countless number of people who are interested in our culture. This movie also proved our business model for Tsonga centric productions as our demographic has been neglected for so long as we form part of the marginalised languages along with Venda and Pedi,” Shilubana explains his motivation for making the film.

Shilubana and his team not only decided to shoot the film in the province, but also hired homegrown actors. According to Shilubana, this was an effort to help unearth local talent. “This was the first acting role for some of the actors. One of the actors was my Gr 1 teacher. The experience as a first time director to have someone like her trusting you totally was truly humbling,” he says.

After a successful shoot, they decided to create their own cinema in the same village in order to show residents the fruits of their labour. “We had our showing at the cinema we created at Nkowankowa Community Hall on 18 December 2015. We will show it again at other cinema venues in our villages and townships. We will also release the film on DVD soon,” Shilubana added.

Following the success of Khomelela, Shilubana and his team are now planning to shoot more films soon.

“We have proven this idea works. People are hungry for more films, the type of films that speak to the heart and soul of our audiences. From here we plan shoot 20 films in Limpopo this year,” Shilubana concluded.