SOUTH AFRICAN SURFING FILM WINS AWARDS

Otelo Burning is a coming-of-age film about a group of township kids who discover surfing. It recently won the Golden Owl for Best Movie by the Audience at the CineramaBC International Film Festival in Brazil. The cast is mostly made up of young up-and-coming actors. This award is the latest in a series of accolades for Otelo Burning. It has already won 13 nominations at the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards, and also won the Best South African Feature Film award at the 5th Cape Winelands Film Festival. The film was shot in Durban and is directed by Sara Blecher. The film is in Zulu with English subtitles. It opens in South African cinemas on 11 May 2012.

The story starts in 1989 with 16-year-old Otelo Buthelezi, his younger brother, Ntwe, and his best friend, New Year, invited to the beach house where their new friend’s mother is a domestic worker. Watching Mandla Modise surf, they see another side of life, the opposite of the township where they live. For the boys, who previously had a deep-seated fear of the sea, “flying on water” comes to represent freedom. Soon, everyone recognises that Otelo is gifted on the water. An older man, Kurt Struely, invites them to his home to watch professional surfers on video. He encourages them to master the waves. With practice, Otelo soon outshines his friend, Mandla, whose resentment builds even more when Dezi, New Year’s younger sister, falls for Otelo. As the boys begin to win competitions, Mandla’s jealousy grows and eventually he betrays his friend. In exchange for money for a new surfboard, he sells Otelo’s brother out as a suspected informer for the security police. When Otelo discovers the truth behind his younger brother’s death, he has to make a choice between the money, glamour, girls and superstardom of international surfing and justice for Ntwe. On the day Nelson Mandela steps out of prison, the young boy makes a choice that will change his life.