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Oliver Schmitz is back to direct |
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Filming has just wrapped on Chanda’s Secrets, a feature film adaptation of Allan Stratton’s acclaimed novel of the same name, which won the American Library Association’s 2005 Michael L. Printz Honour Book for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, among many other awards. Britain’s Children’s Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, hailed the novel as an “extraordinary literary achievement,” calling it “painful and powerful in equal measure – as it should be.” South African-born director Oliver Schmitz (Mapantsula) returned from Germany to direct, 10 years after making Hijack Stories here. Raised in South Africa by German parents, Oliver graduated from UCT and ran a Cape Town nightclub called Scratch before emigrating to avoid being conscripted in the dark days of Apartheid. He returns to South Africa every year and in 2008 he made a TV movie here called Fleisch, about organ theft in the Karoo. The fact that he’s been able to raise German funding for a film set in South Africa, using local talent, is a sign of how well respected he is over there. He’s won the German Grimme Award twice, for Doctor’s Diary in 2008 and Turkish for Beginners in 2006, while he was selected to direct a segment of Paris Je’Taime alongside the likes of the Coen brothers. Like Beat the Drum, Izulu Lami, and Themba, Chanda’s Secrets follows a rural child affected by HIV/AIDS. 18% of South Africa has HIV and more than 1.5 million children have lost their parents as a result, so expect even more AIDS-related films in the future. 13-year-old Chanda, played by first-time actress Khomotso Manyake, is living an ordinary life in Mpumalanga’s Elandsdoorn township until her one-year-old sister Sara dies. From then on, nothing is as it used to be: Chanda’s stepfather Jonah disappears, her younger siblings Iris and Soly are raising trouble, and her mother Lilian is falling seriously ill. Burdened with the responsibility for her siblings, Chanda comes to understand that her sister’s death, Jonah’s disappearance and her mother’s affliction are caused by a secret nobody wants to talk about. Oliver was gripped by the novel. “I couldn’t put it down,” he says. “It’s heart-wrenching, dealing with loss and community stigma. It’s not primarily about AIDS, but rather it’s about a mother-daughter relationship and the kids who are left behind by the disease.” Despite some huge thunderstorms, Oliver really enjoyed shooting in Mpumalanga. “Elandsdoorn was perfect - a traditional place with traditional values, where everybody knows everybody’s business. The people here have never been exposed to filmmaking before but have been very curious. Shooting here, you end up knowing everybody – it’s been really nice.” 30% of the cast and crew are locals from the region. Their biggest challenge was casting the child leads. “We looked at taking a kid out of Joburg, but they’re very different. The kids in Joburg grow up a lot faster and are more cynical. We wanted to find someone who captured the innocence of the young girl, who is completely unaware at the beginning of the film. With Moonyeen Lee, the casting agent, we saw hundreds of kids in Mpumalanga before we found Khomotso.” He admits it was an enormous risk casting untried talent. “I had huge anxiety. You see glimpses of something fantastic in the auditions, but you just never know. She was in 120 of the 126 scenes, so it’s a heavy load to put on any child. But the performances have been great.” To help the youngsters, Oliver brought in Patrick Shai as an acting coach for rehearsals and also used Harriet Manamela, who acted in the film, as the onset coach. Home Affairs’ Lerato Moloisane plays Chanda’s mother, while Hopeville’s Themba Ndaba and Mary Twala also appear. The film is shot in Pedi, which Oliver believes may be a first for a feature film. Greig Buckle and Enigma Pictures facilitated the shoot, which was shot on the Arri D21 using Inscope CinemaScope lenses. Both Mapantsula and Hijack Stories premiered at Cannes Film, which is where Oliver hopes to debut Chanda’s Secrets. Kevin Kriedmann | |||
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