Filmmaker, Jerome Pikwane will be in the diamond city tonight at an exclusive screening of his debut film at the Northern Cape Mall’s Ster Kinekor movie theatre. The psychological horror film stars, Petronella Tshuma as Busisiwe, a young woman from a rural area, who heads to Johannesburg in search of employment. Pikwane explains that she ends up getting a job at a children’s hospital, as a cleaner in the graveyard shift. It is here that she encounters grace, a young child who alleges that the scars and bruises on her body have been inflicted by the eponymous Tokoloshe. Pikwane tells OFM News that the film has already been screened at 11 film festivals around the world, including, Portugal, Spain, South Korea and London.

The Kimberley born, film director went to the National School of the Arts (NSA), before continuing his studies at the New York Film Academy. After graduating he returned to South Africa, where he became a director of commercials for 10 years – The Tokoloshe is his first film. He co-wrote the script with novelist, Richard Kunzmann. The producers of the film, Dumi Gumbi as well as Cati Weinek have been reported to say there are some more invitations for the film as well as possible European distribution deals.

Pikwane described the entire film making process – including a few weeks shoot in Johannesburg - as a collaborative one, referring in part to financial support they received from a couple of private companies and public entities including, Mnet and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). He says “it’s a horror film and is quite epic in the way the journey unfolds, similar to The Shining”, speaking of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film. Pikwane says there is a sense of “dread and claustrophobia that builds and builds as the story unfolds” which is what they were aiming for.

Kubrick isn’t the only filmmaker Pikwane looks up to, internationally he mentions directors, Sergio Leone and Martin Scorsese as well as SA born Oscar-winning director, Gavin Hood. He further references films like the recently released Michael Matthews directed South African Western ‘Five fingers of Marseille’ as inspiring bits of local art, that are indicative of the explosion of local films of late. Films that comment on the ills in society.

He says there is a clear hunger for African content in general and South African content in particular, and he is very keen to see what local audiences, think of his debut film. Pikwane stressed the importance of representation, adding South Africans want to see themselves portrayed on screen, and “it is time we tell our own stories. This is such a well-known mythology, the tokoloshe is known throughout the country, regardless of whether you’re black, white, everyone knows this and we wanted to tell that story” says Pikwane passionately.

The film director will be in Bloemfontein tomorrow for the screening at the Loch Logan Waterfront, continuing the Halloween season.

OFM News