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Interview: "I am interested in telling authentic African stories.''- Sibusiso Khuzwayo
THE LETTER READER is his debut short drama, South Africa
critique
rédigé par Taryn Joffe
publié le 31/08/2020
Sibusiso Khuzwayo, award winning South African filmmaker
Sibusiso Khuzwayo, award winning South African filmmaker
Elinoro Véronique Rajaonah (Malagasyan Writer) is a Durban Talent Press Alum (in partnership with Africiné Magazine)
Elinoro Véronique Rajaonah (Malagasyan Writer) is a Durban Talent Press Alum (in partnership with Africiné Magazine)
Taryn Joffe (South African Writer) is a Durban Talent Press Alum (in partnership with Africiné Magazine)
Taryn Joffe (South African Writer) is a Durban Talent Press Alum (in partnership with Africiné Magazine)
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In the short film, The Letter Reader, the debut by award winning South African filmmaker Sibusiso Khuzwayo, twelve year old Siyabonga (Bahle Mashinini) is a polite kid dispatched to stay with his grandmother in a remote village in KwaZulu-Natal. With little to do, he takes on the job of reading letters to the locals who frequent his grandmother's shop. There, he meets a beautiful woman whom he comforts with letters he plants seemingly written by her absent husband who has left to work in the city.

Now streaming on Netflix (Worldwide) and Showmax (in Africa), The Letter Reader won Best Short Film at the Shnit Worldwide Short Film Festival (South Africa) in October 2019 and received the Golden Horn Award for Best Short Film at the 2020 SAFTAS.

Ahead of the Durban International Film Festival, Talents Durban Press critics, Taryn Joffe and Elinoro Véronique Rajaonah caught up with Khuzwayo to discuss his film.

The Letter Reader is a beautiful period film that unfolds with plenty of intrigue. What are the origins of the story?

Thank you so much for the kind words! The origins of the story came from reading the biography of former South African president, Thabo Mbeki. It's called The Dream Deferred written by Mark Gevisser. There's a little part in the book that details the story of Thabo Mbeki reading letters to the villagers when he was about eight years old. I think it was just a page that talks about this, but the image of the boy reading letters stuck in my mind and germinated into the story that you see now because it kept growing on me.

Can you explain why you chose filmmaking to be the medium of this story?

I think I chose film to express this idea because of my love of storytelling and movies. I've always been someone who buys original DVDs just to watch the director's commentaries and behind the scenes. That was my school for filmmaking, as well as downloading books and watching YouTube videos. There's a lot I still need to learn but I feel film is the only medium I am comfortable with when it comes to telling stories. I also wrote this story as an opportunity to direct and do something on my own.


THE LETTER READER OFFICIAL TRAILER from THE ERGO COMPANY on Vimeo.



Please could you speak about casting the film and your experience of working with Bahle Mashinini, who is such a young actor?

Initially, when I had finished the script, my wish was to work with well known actors. But somehow I realised that as much as this film will do a lot for me in terms of opening doors, I would also want it to open doors for new actors who have not been given opportunities. I would say that especially when it came to the role of Nobuhle.

In terms of Bahle, I knew it was going to be a challenge to cast a young actor because the script doesn't have a lot of dialogue. It has more to do with emotions and what a person thinks. But his performance gave me goosebumps. I would always think about how nuanced his acting was for a young boy. He is very intelligent and I think engaging with him about the character impressed me more than his performance because I think he understood the character more than I did. I think that was a revelation. Bahle was a great find and working with him was so exciting.

Please could you speak about the conception of the scene when Siyabonga first reads the letter to Nobuhle? What was important for you to convey in the aesthetics and tone?

That scene was very important because I wanted to suggest that he was falling in love with Nobuhle but also wanting to protect her heart. It's also where he finds himself in a predicament because that's the scene that changes everything and where he makes a decision.

We were meant to shoot this scene outside but it was raining at the time and it felt like a huge disappointment that we had to stage it inside the shop. I wanted this mood of them under a tree, just the two of them lost in this place, as if the world didn't exist. However, I would say it was another blessing in disguise because I think it created something that was not in the script and I would maybe say even better. We could control the lighting and where they were seated and when it starts to rain and Nobuhle turns towards the window, you see this light hit her face, revealing her happiness and radiance lost in this moment. I must credit the director of photography, Lance Gewer, for creating such a beautiful mood for the scene.

Considering Siyabonga and Menzi never meet, please could you talk about your ambiguous ending?

So yeah, it was my intention to have the kind of ending that would leave people with questions. But at the same time, I feel satisfied because of the theme or overarching idea. Yes, it's about love - love is blind, you know, Nobuhle is blinded by love and not able to see the deception, but Siyabonga is also being blinded by love in a very innocent way, like not respecting that this is a married woman.

The theme is about love, but also it's about truth versus lies. When we see Siyabonga lying it's for the right reasons to protect this woman. But in the end, the message is that the truth will always come out. In a way I was also using this film more as a proof of concept so that if I need to come back and make a feature, there's something to build on.

How did you approach music in the film, especially in the scene when Nobuhle dresses up?

I wrote a brief because I was not there when the music was recorded. I wrote what I wanted for specific scenes and moments. It was important to me that the music did not dictate how the viewer should feel. I was clear in terms of letting the music also be a character on its own.

For that scene, I had a specific mood that I wanted to create. When I finished cutting the film I used a very popular song. It's a wonderful song cover by Miriam Makeba called Lakutshon Ilanga. It created a wonderful mood and I felt that it would work well for this scene but we didn't have the budget for it. However, it was a blessing in disguise because when I sent the scene with this song to the composer Vuyo Manyike, he pulled out this song he had produced that was very similar. It is written by Zanele Mthembu and sung by Samkelisiwe Manjeya. When I listened to it, I was like, "yeah, this is perfect". People are hearing this song for the first time and requesting it, and it belongs to The Letter Reader.

What is your experience of being a filmmaker in South Africa? What are the greatest challenges you see the industry facing?

In my humble opinion and from personal experience, I would say the biggest challenge would be funding because most of us rely on government grants to make films. We also can't blame the private sector for not investing in films because at the end of the day the reality is that in South Africa, films are not making much profit.

Another challenge is distribution. And I don't think information on distribution is readily available. I think it would be nice to have big players in the distribution chains run workshops. Even going to the villages where you can find people who are creating but don't know where to put their work. I think we need to make sure that information reaches everyone.

What is next for you?

For me it's all about telling authentic African stories. This is the medium for the next film that I'm creating. And in terms of the mood, I think it is similar to The Letter Reader, although I think only because it is also set in a village. The film I'm working on now has fable elements and plays more into the territory of Wes Anderson's style. It is about a 12-year-old boy, just like Siyabonga, but the difference this time is the boy is white and he is raised in a village by a black community. So that's what I'm working on right now.

By Taryn Joffe and Elinoro Véronique Rajaonah

This story emanates from the Talent Press, an initiative of Talents Durban in collaboration with the Durban FilmMart & Africiné Magazine (Dakar). The views of this article reflect the opinions of the film critics, Taryn Joffe and Elinoro Véronique RAJAONAH.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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