On Monday evening at 8:15 pm, ARTE will be showing the moving and impressive film “Beloved Life” by Oliver Schmitz. This film is set in the municipality of Elandsdoorn, Hugo Tempelman’s main place of work. The leading actress Khomotso Manyaka is the daughter of one of Hugo’s employees and was even brought into the world by him. She was awarded Best Young Actress for her portrayal of Chanda. This was her first acting experience, just as the majority of the cast are amateur actors from the community. This makes it all the more remarkable how emotionally and convincingly they act in this touching human film.
Oliver Schmitz sensitively tells a story about dignity, responsibility and the social fabric. People who have to come to terms with their everyday problems. This story could be set anywhere, with or without AIDS. The movie has a universal message that can easily be transferred to our lives in this other world with other problems, other worries, other cultural and social hurdles. “I saw in it the potential to gain emotional access to the country and its people,” said the director at the Cannes Film Festival. “This is of greater value than any study.”
You can read a very interesting interview with Oliver Schmitz on filmstarts.de.
“Beloved Life” was a surprising sensation at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and represented South Africa in the nomination for the “Foreign” Oscar. The sensitive narrative, in which the nuances, the things not said tell more than what is said, create an atmosphere that casts a spell over the viewer. Deutschlandradio Kultur says: “”Geliebtes Leben” is one of those screen gems that always provide a surprising, astonishing element in the wide range of films on offer. A wonderful movie discovery!”
See for yourself:
“Beloved Life”
May 8, 2017
ARTE
8:15 p.m.
Content:
Chanda grows up in Elandsdoorn, a rural township in the South African province. As the best girl in her class, the intelligent twelve-year-old actually has a good chance of escaping her modest circumstances.
However, everything changes when her one-year-old half-sister dies: strange rumors surround the reason for her death. Her stepfather Jonah, an alcoholic and adulterer, blames his wife’s “poisoned milk”. He soon abandons the family.
Now Chanda’s mother Lillian also falls seriously ill. Neighbors and acquaintances, otherwise always helpful and obliging, suddenly avoid contact. A healer is called in. She sends Lillian back to her home village to find the cause of her illness. When no news of her arrives for a long time, Chanta sets off in search of her mother.
She is determined to rebel against the unwritten laws and break a deeply rooted taboo.
Scene from “Beloved Life”: Chanda with her mother Lillian – a very special mother-daughter relationship
At the film presentation: Liesje and Hugo Tempelman with the leading actress Khomotso Manyaka and Dieter Haller, the then German ambassador to South Africa
