South Africa / 2013 / 109mins / Drama, Thriller / Xhosa

Schoolteacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) arrives in a rural village with no local connections. Though his unassuming disposition and a glowing recommendation from his previous employer inspires trust and sympathy, he promptly begins a torrid affair with one of his new pupils, 16-year-old Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma). Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s second feature delves into the type of impoverished black community that the government has ignored, making it that despair is part of the working poor’s daily life, and a man “of good report” can get away with anything. Shot in stark black and white, the film is a tribute to classic film noir while at the same time takes us out of that genre with bold artistic and political strokes (the film was banned, but quickly unbanned, by South African authorities).

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka was born in South Africa and grew up in London. He was born in a Xhosa family in what used to be the nominally independent state of Ciskei. His fiction films and documentaries have been screened at international festivals, including at Cannes, Busan, Dubai and Rotterdam. Qubeka’s collaborations with Mandilakhe Mjekula have yielded an interesting body of work, from documentaries to TV dramas, commercials and corporate videos. They directed the 57 minute film Qula Kwedini – A Rite of Passage in 2003. In 2005, Qubeka won the American Peabody Award for a documentary about AIDS which he made for Sesame Street. He made his feature directing debut with A Small Town Called Descent (2010). Quebeka's controversial 2013 film, Of Good Report won the 2014 Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film. He also won the award for Best Director for his action thriller Sew the Winter to My Skin at the 15th Africa Movie Academy Awards hosted in Lagos, Nigeria. Learn More