Applause for Wild Coast movie
The free Ramsgate screening of the documentary, ‘The Shore Break’ was well attended.
POLITICAL intrigue, buried treasure, greed, two cousins on either side in a bitter conflict, a divided royal house and a dethroned king – the plot for the movie, The Shore Break could hardly get more imaginative.
Except that this story line is no work of fiction. And the drama is taking place right on our doorstep, among the rolling hills and sandy dunes of the peaceful Wild Coast.
South Coast residents were privileged to watch a sneak preview of this award-winning documentary, directed by Ryley Grunewald, at Ramsgate Lions’ Community Centre last week, before it made its official KwaZulu-Natal debut at the Durban International Film Festival. This was one of three free screenings that were part of an outreach programme to bring the film to affected communities.
The film played to an almost full house and, judging by the lively question and answer session after the screening, it triggered a great deal of interest in the long-running saga of the proposed Xolobeni Mineral Sands Project, the subject of the film.
The story of this project is more than 10 years in the making and revolves around the determination of an Australian mining company to mine the rich dunes along a 22km stretch of Wild Coast shoreline in the Xolobeni area. The company’s ambitions have split the Amadiba people into bitterly opposed pro-mining and anti-mining factions, personified in the documentary by two cousins.
Nonhle Mbuthuma is a young tour guide who wants to protect the fragile environment on which her people’s livelihoods and culture depends. She is a brave and outspoken opponent of the mining project.
Zamille Madiba Qunya is her cousin and a local entrepreneur who is of the view that mining will benefit the community in the long run. In the movie he makes the point that it would be sinful not to mine the dunes for the heavy minerals that God had given the community.
Woven into the mining story is a tale of political intrigue, in the form of an alleged government plot to oust the Pondo royal family and to install a more accommodating king on the throne.
Ryley produces a balanced and believable account of the drama through the voices of the people concerned – the two cousins, their various supporters and detractors and members of the royal family. It is not without humour, either. Some of the people interviewed are real characters who don’t mince their words as they put forward their views in no uncertain terms.
The beautiful scenery, a lilting score by local musician Ntombe Thongo and the clever use of sand art counterpoint the bitterness of a story of a divided community. There was sustained applause at the end of the film and many questions for Ryley and for social worker John Clarke, who has long been involved in the Xolobeni saga.
The Shore Break has been well received at overseas film festivals and in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It is expected to attract plenty of attention when it is featured at the Durban International Film Festival. Screenings will be at the Suncoast Casino on July 18 at 4.30pm, July 21 at 5.45pm and July 24 at 8pm.
