| Film
Solomon Mhlangu is a freedom fighter who, after being falsely accused of murder and terrorism in 1977, was executed under the apartheid regime. Almost 40 years later, filmmaker Mandla Walter Dube invited Screen Africa on-set in Johannesburg, where Mhlangu’s legacy is being captured in a gritty historical biopic.
Photo by Nicoletta Olivieri
SA Film Kalushi honours Apartheid revolutionary
COMPELLING HERITAGE STORY: Mandla Dube on the set of Kalushi
Reawakening South Africa’s youth “There’s a saying that goes: ‘Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter’,” says Dube, whose passion for South African heritage incandesces under a calm wisdom he offers in between takes on the set of Kalushi – The Solomon Mhlangu Story. Trained as a cinematographer, Dube worked between the US and South Africa up until 2005 when he returned home to lecture at Wits and embarked on a second Master’s degree in heritage management. During his studies Dube wanted to explore how, in convergence with technology, South African heritage could translate into compelling film content, and in many ways this film is a product of that. But he explains that his motivations for making the film go far beyond historical interest. “When I was teaching at Wits I saw such apathy in my students in relation to South Africa’s history, and when I picked up Mhlangu’s story I felt there was such a need for them to understand it. I thought, if we can honour this guy, we’ll be honouring the best in ourselves.” Kalushi translates to ‘shepherd’ in Sotho and is part of the story theme, Dube says, “The way we’ve written the
story is with an underlying theme of Solomon being a shepherd to others while failing to be a shepherd to himself.”
Collecting a dream team The concept for Kalushi has been many years in the making and has been translated by Dube into a number of art forms – from featuring at the Pretoria State Theatre as a stage play, to being scripted as a four-part drama series, to being displayed as a photographic exhibition with Michelle Obama in attendance and finally, as Dube has always envisioned, produced as a feature film. Along the way, he has managed to garner a crew of seasoned pros, a dream cast, expert mentorship and, after failing to find a willing director who resonated with the film the way he did, a feature directorial debut. Notable crew members include Leon Otto, who co-wrote the film with Dube, Walter Ayres (Diana) who is co-producing, costume designer Ruy Filipe (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) production designer Chantel L. Carter and Tommy Maddox Upshaw (Iron Man 2) who studied cinematography with Dube at the American Film Institute. The cast includes Thabo Rametsi (Wild at Heart) who plays Mahlangu, Thabo Malema (The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency), Louw Venter (Semi-Soet), Marcel
van Heerden (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Welile Nzuza (Vehicle 19), Shika Budhoo and Pearl Thusi. Dube has been particularly impressed with the ability of his lead actor and remarks: “Today the scene we are doing with Thabo involves him accepting his destiny and telling his family he’s accepted death, and it’s time they accept it too. During the casting process I had actually cast someone else but there was just something about him and I called him back. He has so much light in his eyes and a lovable face, not to mention a striking resemblance to the real Mhlangu and an immense amount of talent.”
A visual journey Maddox is shooting the film with an ARRI Alexa Plus 16:9 HD 2K, using both Panavision Primo lenses, and Pentax large format lenses and explains that great stylistic consideration is used to visually portray and enhance the narrative. Maddox explains: “The beginning of the film is warm as Mhlangu is comfortable and in his home country but when he goes to Mozambique it becomes cold in tone and we used more natural light to represent his move away from what is familiar. When he is in Angola, we use cyan to represent a shift and his state of transformation. When he has the realisation that he is a
revolutionary we apply a clean palate and tone. When he evolves into a leader, all hell breaks loose and we give these scenes a more aggressive look with high contrast and lens flares. During the trial period when he has accepted his fate, we represent his closure with a pristine and clean look.” In addition, Maddox says different lookup tables (LUTs) and lenses were used to further enhance both the progression of time and of Mhlangu’s character. “We use different diffusion filters for different time periods and with each country we change LUT and diffusion on the lense. At the end of the movie we take it one step further by using an intentional in-camera palette shift to symbolise what Mhlangu is going through.” Dube adds: “We pay homage to certain films like Midnight Cowboy, City of God, Munich, Apocalypse Now and Dead Man Walking, which was like a filmic Bible. We also drew inspiration from Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, who influenced our visual language a great deal.” Kalushi is currently being filmed on locations in and around Pretoria and Johannesburg over six weeks and is expected to release in 2015. – Carly Barnes July 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 19