Another international award for SA film

A GROUP of Pretoria-based advocates who own the film company Bosbok Ses Films have shown once again that they not only have sharp legal minds, but can also compete with the best international filmmakers.

Credit: Supplied

Nicola Breytenbach and Andrew Govender in a scene from 'Free State'. Picture: Supplied

Their period drama feature, Free State, filmed in South Africa, has continued its winning streak by recently taking the honours for best cinematography at the Garden State Film Festival in New York.

The film, which is due to hit the box office in South Africa later this month, recently also scooped the Best Director award at the Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt.

Multi-award winning Pretoria-based director of the film, Sallas de Jager, son of senior advocate Piet de Jager, is thrilled with what the film has achieved thus far.

“This is an amazing accolade and we are really thrilled that our director of photography, Tom Marais, has been singled out for his amazing work on this film. It is testimony to Tom's dedication and passion for the medium of film. He has done us proud,” Sallas said.

He said to win is further proof that the complexities of our history resonate far beyond our borders and that our stories are universal.

Written and directed by Sallas, the film is set in the Free State province during the 1970s and examines the devastating consequences that an interracial relationship between an Afrikaans student and a handsome Indian man have on the couple and their respective families.

Free State is a collaboration between Bosbok Ses Films and Utkarsh Entertainment, in association with Indian-based company ParNam Entertainment.

Set in 1979 - the height of apartheid - it tells the story of an Afrikaans Free State woman and an Indian man who fall in love. Some of the scenes were shot in Laudium, west of Pretoria.

Bosbok Ses Films belongs to, among others, well-known advocates Piet de Jager, Rian Strydom, Jaap Cilliers and Step Guldenpfenning, of the Pretoria Bar.

Piet, who hung up his robes for a few days to attend the 5th Luxor African Film Festival with his son Sallas, said the award came as a great surprise.”In fact, I left the proceedings early to do some sightseeing and missed the announcement.”

According to Piet, they suspected they might win an award in New York, as the organisers offered to fly Tom out there and put him up in a hotel. But Tom was unfortunately in hospital at the time for an operation.

Stars of the film, South African-born Nicola Breytenbach, who now lives in New York and works as a model, and former Mr South Africa, Andrew Govender, who plays the love of her life in the film, attended the ceremony.

The film is due to be released in South Africa on April 27, Freedom Day.

Sallas and his team are meanwhile already filming their next movie, for which he also wrote the screenplay. It is a serious comedy about a middle-class young man who became a car guard after he was kicked out of his parental home. Filming is taking place around the Moot, in Pretoria, this week .

Nicola Breytenbach and Andrew Govender in a scene from Free State.

The Star

Share this post