Made in SA - a feast for the connoisseur

In the awards categories, the standard is the highest its ever been. Most of the 24 films in competition will be shown twice during the week-long festival.

"Although it would be unfair to single out any films before the final judging takes place, let me tell you that there are some brilliant entries. If anyone doubts the quality of our local products, now is the time to be convinced. South Africans are without doubt making world-class films," says festival manager, Gail Robbins.

As in previous years, the Apollo Film Festival features a retrospective section where local films from previous decades can be seen. This year, three films from the turbulent 1980s and early 1990s are to be screened.

Shot Down by Andrew Worsdale has been described as 'without doubt South Africa's most subversive movie' and it has been described by Worsdale himself as 'the only record of young white leftie anxiety amid the turmpoil of the eighties'. The film was made in 1986, and was banned for ten years.

Darrell Roodt's The Stick deals with a group of rough and violent soldiers who, returning to base after a raid, are stalked by an unseen terror that not only lurks in the bush around them but penetrates the foundation of their confidence within. This is a study in paranoia that was made in 1988 and immediately banned in South Africa.

David Wicht made Windprints in Namibia in 1991 and it deals with the disturbing conflicts surrounding the Nama people at that time. The central character is a young liberal Afrikaner who, though bewildered by the problems that beset his southern African home, nevertheless learns to fight for what he believes.

A real bonus for Festival goers is that two of these directors – Worsdale and Wicht - will be in Victoria West to introduce and discuss their films.

To place the Apollo Film Festival in its continental setting, a celebrated West African offering - Sarraounia by Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo - will be screened. Here is the story of a young warrior queen and her tribe battling against the French army as it widens its colonial grip on Africa. Hondo has developed a rich and powerful form of story telling that draws on the West African oral tradition and seeks to dismantle the narrative and psychological mechanisms of typical Hollywood film drama.

To book theatre tickets at the Apollo and accommodation in Victoria West, telephone Nolufefe or Clare-Rose on 053-6211185.