MAPANTSULA

Theatre and stage director/writer Thomas Mogonane has gathered a cast of experienced black television and stage actors for Mapantsula and probably the films greatest strength lies in its ability to depict the whole range of black lives in a manner we've never been privy to before;

'Panic' is a black African petty thief living in Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg, yet indifferent to die political struggle of his people A selfish man with little respect For anyone, he has (somehow) managed to sidestep political issues thus far, living a relatively comfortable life from the proceeds of his stock in-trade, purse snatching Eventually he pays a high price for his political naivete, but the dawning may not have come too late.

Co-writers Oliver Schmitz (the South African born son of a German émigré family) and Thomas Mogotiane (a black South African) have chosen an unlikeable black anti-hero as their central character in this remarkable film, the first open attack on apartheid made by South Africans in South Africa, with an interracial cast and crew, a white South African director and co-writer, a black co-writer who also stars, and executive producers from Britain and Australia!

The film, which was made under the noses of Johannesburg officials is an unexpected, unprecedented example of anti-government filmmaking created by blacks and whites together within South Africa, as opposed to anti-apartheid films produced elsewhere. In order to get the film made, the producers cleverly decided to do everything by the book, submitting all necessary scripts and shooting applications to the officials in the accepted manner - then went ahead and shot the intended film on those same locations.