SA - Dutch film wins in Milan

WESTERN 4.33 is an experimental documentary which deals with the German concentration camp on Shark Island, near Luderitz, where thousands of indigenous Herero people were incarcerated from 1905 to 1908.

Shot on stark black and white Kodak Plus X super 8mm film by one of Holland's foremost cinematographers, Wiro Felix, the film was praised for its powerful visual style as well as its remarkable sound design by Jane Snijders.

The jury report described the film as "A reflection recorded in physical pain and in the memory, where images and sounds, the photography and editing, combine to build up a great sensorial and political experience, for a new way of observing and experiencing the relationship with time and space."

Scripted and directed by Johannesburg-based Aryan Kaganof, WESTERN 4.33 is only the second ever South African production to win a prize at the prestigious Milanese festival. (The first was Zola Maseko's Hottentot Revue in 1999). It is the first time that the African festival has awarded a prize to a so-called "white".

WESTERN 4.33 is the first production by the new production house MANDALA FILMS, who will specialise in African cinema with content that really matters matched by aesthetics that startle. Subsequent to its Milan screening WESTERN 4.33 has been selected for festivals at Pesaro, Marseilles, Ghent, Thessaloniki, Manchester and Grahamstown among many others. The film has been acquired for distribution by International Art Film.