A group of talented young filmmakers has shot a movie highlighting the natural beauty of the Cape and say they don’t want to be Hollywood puppets.

The film students from AFDA created a short film called Fata Morgana, which they will showcase at the AFDA Cape Town Graduation Festival this month.

Kariska Kotze says their aim is to represent the people of South Africa and empower local communities through their film instead of following the “Western blueprint” of hiding local landscapes behind big corporate productions.

Kariska explains: “As student filmmakers, we want to change the game of how film is perceived within South Africa.

“Instead of being ‘Western puppets’, we want to be authentic and proud of who we are and where we are from.”

She described Fata Morgana is a surrealist fantasy about two sisters.

Kariska says: “This will be seen as the older practical sister leaves for college, causing her younger sister’s magical world to take over.

“This film is about the fear of being forgotten by the person you love most and our main motivation was to make a film for the people we don’t want to forget, the  people that make life just a little bit better.”

The fliek was shot in Paarl and created by a talented group of 20 film students who all specialise in different media components.

Kariska says: “As up-and-coming filmmakers, we are getting ready to enter the industry, but we just didn’t want to follow the industry machine and film a movie without having the industry revenue go back to the communities and having the film empower the people it is trying to reach.

“So we as a collective aspired to promote community through every aspect of our production journey and break away from the Hollywood machine through community filmmaking.”

Fata Morgana premieres on 22 November at the Labia Theatre and tickets are available at R50 on Quicket and at the door.

The film will later be streamed at www.fatamorgana.co.za.

Daily Voice