Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019)
Past dates
8/21/22
6:00 PM
This visionary masterpiece tells the story of an 80-year-old widow who rediscovers her will to live and her fighting spirit when her village is to be relocated for the construction of a dam. Grieving for her son who died in a gold mine in South Africa, Mantoa, played by the late South African film-icon Mary Twala, last seen in Beyoncé's »Black is King«, prepares to die. But her village is to be relocated and flooded for the construction of a reservoir. With nothing left to lose, Mantoa does everything she can to put an end to this and to mobilise her village against the construction project. In his tale of resistance, displacement and collective identity, Lesotho born and Berlin-based director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, interweaves the history of his home country with a profound and visually powerful critique of capitalist growth dynamics and land grabbing in the name of progress. For which the visual artist and self-taught filmmaker won around 20 international prizes, including at the Sundance Film Festival 2020, and was nominated for an Oscar. THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT'S A RESURRECTION was an inspiration for Jeremy Nedd's dance piece, which combines the Western genre with questions of land from a South African perspective and the virtuosic dynamics of Pantsula culture. Be sure to see both!