Lead Roles For Limpopo

Filmmaker Anthony Thobejane is giving hope to a generation of young people as he makes films in a rural village in Limpopo

- Lucas Ledwaba

THE tavern patrons are getting restless. It’s a lazy sunny Sunday in Moroke, a rural village in Limpopo where a visit to the water­ing hole is just about the only form of entertain­ment. The bored patrons want to enjoy their drinks while bobbing to some jazz, but a film shoot is taking place in the pub.

Veteran television scriptwriter and dramatist Anthony Thobejane disap­pears behind the lemon trees to beg for shooting on a minimal budget – locations are hard to secure.

A lot of begging and pleading with neighbours, friends and acquaintances to offer spaces for shoots is the only way to survive. But Anthony isn’t deterred because he understands what’s at stake.

The filmmaker, who hails from Moroke, knows that despite being located in the rich Bushveld platinum region that’s teeming with platinum­group metal mines, job prospects for many of the youth who live here are grim.

According to Statistics SA unemploy­ % while is at anched the and TV ears a rural village where we don’t have access to many amenities,” says Frans Phala, who joined the project in 2016.

“All we know is mining. So when this opportunity to study film and television production came about we took it with both hands.”

Anthony teaches unemployed youth like Frans the finer points of television production, script writing and acting.

So far they’ve written four scripts for different dramas and are currently in the final stages of shooting Loveless, a one­hour film that Anthony hopes will be picked up by a broadcasting house.

The storyline for Loveless came about after a brainstorming session with young people who live in the village.