Movie Shoot Excites Pretoria Township

Tlaki Baloyi



Many came to see the Shoot of Mphephe in Soshanguve.



Township life is often interesting for various reasons and many townships are often seen as busy hubs of entertainment for ills at times such as crime and over indulgence.

That is just one of the reasons youths from two Pretoria communities, Soshanguve and Winterveld, decided to team up and shoot a new comedy called Mphephe. The film is produced by Bongani Magubane who says his inspiration for the script came from the Chinese movies he used to watch as a child.

Those working on the movie are hoping for some success, but they know that working in South Africa's film industry is hard work when the country has produced Oscar nominated and winning gems such as Yesterday, District 9 and Tsotsi.

Bongani and his team were working on a really tight budget. They had to shoot the movie on location in Soshanguve as that was cheap and as he says, it would help children in the community get local role models with people from the community working on the movie in the community. So for three days this poor community was turned into a movie set.

“I have always loved comedy. I chose it because it is easy to make, people enjoy it and it is in demand. I had to overcome challenges such as lack of resources, budget constraints and typical township chaos by minimizing costs and using people surrounding me” Bongani says.

Shooting in the township had its challenges though as he had to maintain discipline with onlookers who would, at times, laugh as the script was hilarious.

One of the kids in the area decided to walk through the set during the shoot, pulled one of the actors by a tie he was using as a belt, but Bongani says that doesn’t faze him.

Sound Technician, Lehlogonolo Masemene, says they are planning to have community centres where kids can practice drama. He says the movie is special because the cast and crew come from different institutions and amateurs were also given the platform. One of these amateurs is Freedom Kubheka who says she started acting in February this year and she adapted quickly because she is used to improvising. She wants to be a professional actress in the future. Her favourite actor is Martin Lawrence and she says she acts because she wants to make people laugh. The DVD will hit the stores in a month’s time and it is good value for one’s money.

Community members used for movie shoot.

Also working on the movie are Innocent Nkuna as the director, Enoch Mabona and Temba as cameramen.

The cast consist of Alfred as the main character, Mpephe, and Bongani as his friend Chini. They act to

gether with Joyce Mbele, Freedom Kubheka, Golden, the famous Xingelengele from Crazy Entertainers, Nomvula Nhlapo and Sibongile Mahlangu.