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imprimer | retour Le film sud-africain Western 4.33 a été sélectionné pour le festival de Berlin Le 32 min. de Aryan Kaganof sera présenté au Forumfévrier 2004

The South African-Dutch co-production, WESTERN 4.33 (2002, 32min, 35mm) directed by Aryan Kaganof and produced by Wiro Felix, has been selected for participation in the prestigious FORUM of the Berlin International Film Festival. The screening which will take place on 8 February at 20:30 is the first time a South African production has been screened in the Forum since 1994 when Brian Tilley's In A Time Of Violence was presented.

The 34th International Forum of New Cinema

Whether avant-garde, experimental, essayistic, long-term studies, political reportage or unfamiliar cinematography, the International Forum of New Cinema brings together all that is beyond the mainstream, new or treading uncharted filmmaking territory.

WESTERN 4.33

SYNOPSIS

B.T. is a truck driver on his way from Johannesburg to
Luderitz in Namibia. When he gets there he watches the
sunset. He thinks about his great grandfather who
perished in the German concentration camp on Shark
Island opposite Luderitz. He thinks about his
girlfriend who broke up with him. Or he broke up with
her? Memory blends the personal pain of heartbtreak
with the grand, sweeping pain of history.

Western4.33 is a meditation on the impossible colonial
dream; the attempt to "civilize" Africa. The ghost
town of Kolmanskop symbolises the failure of the
Lutheran pietists to gain a foothold in the densely
sensual textures of the world's oldest desert. The few
colour scenes in the film are metaphors for the rich
menstrual blood of the African woman who is truly
"mother Africa" to the human race.

Digital editing is used by Kaganof to achieve the
"slowness" that Milan Kundera has suggested the modern
world is sorely lacking. WESTERN4.33 is notable for
its sumptuous black and white imagery by
cinematographer Wiro Felix and its unusual use of
sculptural sound design by Jane Snijders.


LOGLINE

A beautiful meditative statement in Namibia, where
the German colonial power established concentration
camps early in the 20tth century; a reflection recorded
in physical pain and in the collective memory of an
unbroken people and culture.

WESTERN 4.33 has previously been awarded the prize for Best Video made in Africa at the 12th African Film Festival of Milan and the Prize for Best Documentary at the 1st African and Islands Festival of Reunion.


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