South Africans will soon have three excellent locally produced movies to enjoy as they debut over the upcoming months.
The movie "Catching Feelings" will open across the country this Friday.
The plot revolves around of a once-famous writer and his wife whose lives are disrupted when a famous and very self-indulgent author comes to stay with them.
It stars Pearl Thusi, Kagiso Lediga, Akin Omotoso and Andrew Buckland, among others.
Here's the official trailer:
April 6 sees the premiere of "Five Fingers For Marseilles".
The film stars Vuyo Dabula, Hamilton Dhlamini, Zethu Dlomo, Kenneth Nkosi, Mduduzi Mabaso, Aubrey Poolo, Lizwi Vilakazi, Warren Masemola, Dean Fourie, Anthony Oseyemi, Brendon Daniels and Jerry Mofokeng, and it's the first Western the post-apartheid SA film industry has produced.
Tau, once a member of the "Five Fingers" vigilantes who tried to protect the rural town of Marseilles from apartheid police, had to flee after killing two cops. He returns seeking peace 20 years later. He finds the town under a new threat, and he must reluctantly fight to free it. Will the Five Fingers stand again?
You can watch the trailer here:
"Zulu Wedding" opens in cinemas on April 20.
The movie features an all-star cast that includes Nondumiso Tembe, Darrin Dewitt-Henson, Pallance Dladla, Carl Payne, Bubu Mazibuko, Kelly Khumalo, Lorcia Cooper, S'thandiwe Kgoroge, Treasure Tshabalala, Kole Omotoso and Makgano Mamabolo. Also featuring are cameo appearances from DJ Tira, Carolyn Steyn and many local celebrities.
It tells the story of 28-year-old Lou, a modern urban gal who is told she's been promised to the Zulu king in marriage, to repay an ancestral debt. She is forced to confront the tradition she's been running away from since the death of her parents when she turned 15.
In a recent interview with HuffPost, actor and producer Thabo Rametsi said he believes South Africa makes some of the best movies in the world.
He said for the local movie industry to grow, it's up to consumers to go out and support movies when they are released.
"If you go to any cinema and see South African movie posters, most of them have these little brackets on the side. We ignore them because we're not really a film nation, but those brackets tell us how many film festivals a movie has been chosen to show in, as well as the number of awards it has won. If you look carefully, you'll see that all our South African movies have those. Maybe seven out of 10 of our films have one of those, which tells how great we are," Rametsi said.
He said that although there are minor distribution issues that need to be fixed on the side of producers, local support is a good start.
"If our people could go out and watch the films we put out now, we'd be able to get even more funding – to deliver to them the kind of movies that will compete with the likes of 'Black Panther', he said.