Mohalenyane Phakela
AWARD-WINNING filmmaker, Lepheana Mosooane, is working on producing Lesotho’s first home-grown feature film tackling the all too pervasive vice of corruption.
Speaking to the Weekender this week, the 26-year-old filmmaker said corruption is one of the major problems retarding this country’s development, yet no one has made a television or radio drama that confronts the issue.
“Corruption is one of the major crimes that affect our country and almost every time one switches on a radio, television set, or reads a local newspaper, they are likely to come across a story on corruption,” said Mosooane.
He said the one-hour ling film will be called The Brown Envelope, a euphemism for bribes, and is expected to be released in December.
“People often say so and so received a brown envelope or even ask whether you also got an envelope yet,” Mosooane said.
“Which is why I decided to centre my film on brown envelopes since it seems that nobody has bothered to address the issue through film.”
He attained a degree in drama at the National University of Lesotho in 2010, but only wrote his first film in 2013 after studying film production at Kick4life.
Mosooane’s first film, The Darkest Hour, was awarded the best amateur documentary in 2013 while his second, The Last Tear Drop, won the first 48 Hour Film Competition at the annual Sesotho Media and Development Film Festival.
As someone who came from a humble background, his films have mostly focused on the plight of the suffering masses and other factors that affect their development.
The Thaba Tseka-born filmmaker added that the script for the film is now being finalised and expressed hope that it will make a splash following its release, as it will be in the “Hollywood style”.
The ambitious Mosooane is even looking beyond Lesotho’s border, stating that his goal is to see the film holding its own at such international film festivals as the famous Berlin International Film Festival.
“I will use the best of local talent as far, as the cast is concerned, to ensure we produce a quality product,” he said.
“So I expect to get funding before the end of June so that the film can be released sometime in December.”
Mosooane also bemoaned the “sad” state of the local film industry, which he said is yet to be commercially viable. As a result, he said, producers are end up churning poor quality films as they cannot afford to cover the attendant costs.
“I continually face the challenge of renegotiating with the cast of my productions as they wont be enough money to pay them adequately,” he said.
“This consequently results in the marked deterioration of the film’s quality as I sometimes have to find unskilled actors to play the roles.”
Due to the chronic unavailability of resources, said Mosooane, they are also not able to vary the locations for the films which makes them formulaic and monotonous.
