The Jozi Film Festival is in full swing

The fifth annual Jozi Film Festival has kicked off with a bang and the line-up over the next two days is a cracker. On Thursday evening, the opening of the festival, team CN&CO joined the Jozi Film Festival team to launch the festival. The award-winning courtroom drama, Shepherds and Butchers, directed by South African Oliver Schmitz (director of  Mapantsula and  Life, Above All) was the opening film. This film is evidence that South Africa’s film industry is making waves and is giving international acts a hard time. The stories told are inspired by South African people and historic events. Shepherds and Butchers takes us back to a traumatic time when the death penalty was in place. Watch the trailer below:

What a great display of local film brilliance!

Everyone in the theatre was blown away by not only the production, but by the storyline itself.

‘The film was outstanding,” SAYS CN&CO’S Colin Ford. “One element of the storyline which really resonated with me was how, in the 80s in South Africa, people would try to find ways of getting out of going to the army. One of the ways to do this was to join the police or prisons service, which was a choice faced by the main character in this film.

“I was in matric in 1987, the year in which this film is set, facing the same predicament. There but for the grace of God…”

This is just one example of a fantastic film being showcased this weekend. Be sure to check out the full line-up and head out to support the Jozi Film Festival!