Tsotsi premieres March at Bulawayo Cinema

NEW movie titled Tsotsi, which looks at things people do because of love, is set to premiere at the Bulawayo Cinema on March 14.

NEW movie titled Tsotsi, which looks at things people do because of love, is set to premiere at the Bulawayo Cinema on March 14.

NONHLANHLA SIBANDA OWN CORRESPONDENT

The romantic movie written and directed by Visual Concepts’ Mannex Magadzire and shot in Bulawayo, features a cast of 35 actors, among them Bekithemba “Thorne” Sibanda, Rodrick Roy Banda, Mellisa Ntulini, Mthulisi Nkomo, Lovemore Moyo, Thamsanqa Phiri, Leon Luvuno, Mutyoro Tizai, Sazini Kasanga, Melusi Dube and Gift Ndlovu.

The story is about a bank teller in love Simba, played by Sibanda, who goes to hiring robbers to help him hijack a car and rob a shop to pay for his ailing mother-in-law’s high hospital bill to prove his love for his wife.

His father-in-law, played by Tizai (detective), investigates the robbery and shoots and kills a suspect, who turns out to be his son-in-law.

Speaking to Southern Eye Lifestyle, Magadzire said the movie depicts real life situations.

“The story has no happy ending, which is a true depiction of real life circumstances. Not everyone’s story ends well. Simba ends up getting killed by his father-in-law in his line of work for a good cause,”Magadzire said.

“I have other productions such as Man of God and Wrong place at the wrong time being worked on that  do not have good endings. The movies show that good does not always triumph.”

The movie was shot in the high-­­density suburbs of Luveve, Emakhandeni and Mzilikazi as well as the Bulawayo central business district. Magadzire said viewers should expect something exceptional.

“We wanted to depict life in the ghetto and that is why we chose these suburbs.

“We did not go for big cars such as Range Rovers and luxurious homes because that would have made the movie costly. I believe we have a cast of talented actors who made the movie incomparable.

“Challenge we have in the film industry is that the government does not assist us. For example, when you want to use the police uniform or shoot a scene in court or prison, you can’t because you are prohibited.

“That makes it hard to clearly act out the life of a person in jail or depict a court case. We do not  want to portray the wrong image about the police or our government systems,but want to show the good side.

“We are grateful for the help we received from Marondera Clinic (Mzilikazi) and other people who offered us their facilities.

“The public needs to support us; they often have a bad picture of movies produced locally. There is an assumption that locally — produced movies are of poor quality, but I can guarantee that Tsotsi is not the same. We hired professionals to do the job.

“Actually there are people I had to convince that the movie was not a South African production because of its excellence,” Magadzire said.

He said Tsotsi will go on a nationwide tour in a bid to promote and bring the movie to the people.

“We will not stop with the premiere, but we want to bring our movies to the people. My team will go on a nationwide tour with a target to distribute 50 000 copies.”

Tickets for the launch night are pegged at $10 for the VIP section and $5 for the rest.

Cast and crew will be on call to interact with the audience over cocktails and take pictures after the screening.