#OnTheBigScreen: Family rules, action & Winnie the Pooh

Meerkat Maantuig

Gideonette de la Rey is a fearful 13-year-old girl who believes in a family curse that has been passed down from generation to generation. Scared and desperate she’s unable to escape this story that has shaped her identity. Ultimately, it’s only by facing her fears that she’s able to transcend it.

Q&A with Meerkat Maantuig writer/director Hanneke Schutte

Daniel Dercksen  14 Mar 2018

It is an enchanting film about the stories we tell ourselves: The stories that define our lives and, more often than not, limit our lives. With elements of magic realism, Meerkat Maantuig is a truly unique film unlike anything we’ve seen in South African cinemas – it’s a beautifully told story that shows us how to become braver than we ever thought we could.

Inspired by the youth novella Blinde Sambok by renowned South African author Riana Scheepers, writer-director Hanneke Schutte, decided to use the book as a point of departure and turn it into a cinematic story set in the majestic forests of Magoebaskloof, South Africa.

Marrowbone

A young man and his younger siblings who have concealed the death of their mother to remain together are plagued by a sinister presence in their home

This brilliant mind-bender marks screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez’s anticipated directorial debut.

“What’s difficult about this film is talking about it without revealing any of the details. The audience is going to find a very rich universe, full of nuances, with many turns and, above all, a lot of emotion.”

Tomb Raider

This epic origin story not only takes audiences inside Lara Croft’s very first adventure but also completely into the heart and mind of a character who, in order to find her place in the world, must connect her future with her past. The film explores not only the choices she makes but why she makes them, as we discover how she came to be one of the greatest and most popular action heroes of all time.

The film is peppered with numerous touchstones from the hugely successful, critically acclaimed 2013 Tomb Raider video game - the biggest seller in the entire franchise’s history - which served as a key source of inspiration for the filmmakers, as did the updated take on the character herself.

Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death.

Leaving everything she knows behind, Lara goes in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who - against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit - must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her earning her the name tomb raider.

Directed by Roar Uthaug, the screenplay was crafted by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, from a story by Robertson-Dworet and Evan Daugherty.

Goodbye Christopher Robin

This enchanting human drama offers a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin, whose toys inspired the magical world of Winnie the Pooh. Along with his mother Daphne (Margot Robbie) and his nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), Christopher Robin and his family are swept up in the international success of the books; the enchanting tales bringing hope and comfort to England after the First World War. But with the eyes of the world on Christopher Robin, what will the cost be to the family?

It’s the story of the family that created the Winnie the Pooh stories, how they became famous on the back of the stories, and the impact that had on their lives.

It was directed by Simon Curtis and written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan.

Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za