Films from Namibia, South Africa, Kenya and Germany will be screened at the Goethe-Institut Namibia under the German Weeks 2019 initiative ‘OdD-inary Film Weekend’, which starts tonight.
The open-air screenings kick off at 19h00 with the Namibian film ‘Tjitji the Himba Girl’, directed by Oshosheni Hiveluah.
Tjitji,
a bright young rural Himba girl, is torn between her parent’s cultural
values and expectations and her personal desire to embrace the
opportunities life has to offer, and maybe even fulfill her dream of
becoming a talk show host like Oprah Winfrey.
“All selected
films depict the difficult conversations individuals face when being
themselves in society – not only in relation to external social
structures such as traditions and cultures, but also deeper in terms of
the internal struggles a person has to deal with, even when around close
friends and not just society at large,” said Goethe-Institut Namibia
cultural programmes assistant, Michelle Namases.
‘The Garden’,
screened in German with English subtitles, airs at 19h30 tonight and
depicts a family’s argument over the inheritance of their grandmother’s
summer house, while strange things like falling trees and missing
children baffle the surrounding community.
Kenyan film ‘Rafiki’,
by director Wanuri Kahiu, has been banned in its country of origin. It
screens tomorrow, Friday, 15 March, at 19h00. It tells the story of two
young girls who fall in love but are challenged by society’s perception
of same-sex relationships and the fact that their fathers are political
opponents.
‘High Fantasy’, a South African film, will be screened
on Saturday, 16 March, at 19h00 and depicts a group of young adults
who, while camping in the middle of nowhere, wake up to discover that
they had swapped bodies and must navigate a labyrinth of personal and
political differences.
“’Rafiki’ and ‘High Fantasy’ inspire the
youth of Africa to look past political and cultural differences, and
support each other in personal journeys towards achieving goals and
living together as one society,” said Namases.
Finally,
‘Western’, screened in German with English subtitles, will be screened
at 21h00 on Saturday. It follows a group of construction workers from
Germany and the native inhabitants of a remote Bulgarian village as ‘the
other’ to each other.
All screenings are open to the public at no charge and include complementary popcorn.
For more information, visit goethe.de/namibia or Goethe-Institut-Namibia on Facebook.
