Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese - 'This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’

About

Meano, Italy – Museo Meà and L’Associazione Asilo Dei Creativi Meano are proud to present the most recent feature film by LEMOHANG JEREMIAH MOSESE (Lesotho). The film was produced through the Biennale College Cinema program of the Venice Biennale and will have its world premiere on the 29th of August at the Venice Film Festival. The director/writer will be in attendance, as will the producer CAIT PANSEGROUW (South Africa ) and the cinematographer PIERRE DE VILLIERS (South Africa). After the screening of the film there will be a short Q&A. Accompanying the screening will be an exhibition of a series of images from the film plus the inauguration of the solo exhibition of South African photographer Jabu Nadia Newman’s ‘It Takes a Village.’

Director:

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Production:

Cait Pansegrouw

Running Time:

120’

Language:

sesotho

Country:

Lesotho

Year:

2019

Main Cast:

Mary Twala Mhlongo, Jerry Mofokeng Wa, Makhetha, Makhaola Ndebele, Tseko Monaheng, Siphiwe Nzima

Cinematographer:

Pierre De Villiers

Editor:

Lemogang Jeremiah Mosese

Production Designer:

Leila Walter

Costume Designer:

Nao Serati

Music:

Yu Miyashita

Synopsis

In a small village nestled amongst the mountains of land-locked Lesotho, an 80 year old widow awaits the return of her only surviving family member: her son, a migrant worker labouring in a South African coal mine. It is Christmas and he is due home. Sombre messengers deliver the news: her son has died in a mining accident. Distraught by the sudden news of his untimely death, Mantoa struggles to find meaning in her existence.

An invisible wall of bewilderment arises and stands between Mantoa and the outside world. God, the village, and reality too, appear further and further away. Consumed by grief, her yearning for death and reuniting with her family steadily grows. She yearns to be laid to rest in the local cemetery with her loved ones.
Mantoa winds up her affairs early and makes arrangements for her own burial. Her plans are punctuated when she learns that the village is to be forcibly resettled due to the construction of a dam reservoir. The land will be flooded and the cemetery desecrated. Mantoa’s resolve is unwavering; igniting a collective spirit of defiance within the community. In the final dramatic moments of her life, Mantoa’s legend is forged and made eternal.

Director’s Statement

I still know every texture of my grandmother’s house; its walls, its thatched roof, the smell of oak trees after rain. Soon it will be no more. Soon it will be razed and flooded and water will be channeled into the heart of South Africa. Communities are being erased en masse in the name of progress. Forgotten in a soulless march towards futurity. I am not for or against progress. I am more interested in questioning the psychological, spiritual and social elements that come with it. New and old. Birth and death. An ecclesiastical reverence to the earth. Through Mantoa’s eyes, we see that there is a lot of darkness to face, but ultimately this is a story about the resilience of the human spirit.