#OneTheBigScreen: 'Flatland', 'Summerland', 'Antebellum', 'War with Grandpa', 'Peninsula'

Flatland

Writer-director Jenna Bass’ Flatland is a journey of self-discovery for three different but equally trapped women. A contemporary South African Western questioning issues of race, class and gender, it paints a vivid and unique portrait of femininity against a hostile frontier land and questions what it means to be a woman today in South Africa and the world at large.

The life of a lonely, middle-aged policewoman Beauty Cuba (Faith Baloyi) changes forever when she receives a call for help from Billy, her fresh-out-of-prison former lover who has recently been re-arrested for the murder of a pastor. Beauty returns to her hometown of Beaufort West, deep in the heart of the surreal landscape of the semi-desert Karoo, and quickly learns that this case is not as simple as she had thought. The real culprit of this accidental murder is the painfully shy, young and just-married Natalie Jonkers (Nicole Fortuin) who flees her small, rural town on horseback and teams up with her now pregnant childhood friend Poppie (Izel Bezuidenhout) to outrun the law and make their way to Johannesburg. Natalie and Poppie’s story explores an inter-class and -racial friendship (Natalie is the daughter of a black woman once employed by Poppie’s white family), as well as topical explorations of gender roles and consent, especially when it comes to Natalie’s abusive husband.

Read more:here

Summerland

With a love story between two women at its core, this wartime drama with a contemporary sensibility examines deep themes of faith, spirituality, loss and belief through the concept of Summerland, a conceptualisation of the afterlife which has long been used in paganism.

Set over one extraordinary and memorable long hot English summer, the film tells the story of Alice, a reclusive woman who has closed her heart to the world and uses her scientific background to debunk the existence of other-worldly forces and magic. Alice’s world is turned upside down when she is tasked with caring for Frank, a frightened and innocent young boy seeking shelter from the London Blitz. Over sun-dappled days in the Sussex countryside, Frank’s curiosity and open-mindedness unlock deeply buried and painful secrets in Alice’s past, and make her re-evaluate what it really means to free your imagination.

Starring Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha Raw, It marks the feature directorial debut of acclaimed Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale, who helms her own original script.

Read more: here

Antebellum

A mind-bending mystery that unfolds as a metaphor for the current climate of racism, Antebellum centers on Veronica (Janelle Monáe), a Ph.D. sociologist and bestselling author whose books explore the disenfranchisement of black people in the U.S., which has long been written into the country’s DNA. She’s devoted to her loving husband Nick and young daughter Kennedi, both of whom she must leave to travel to New Orleans, where she’s to speak at a talk. There, her empowering words remind the audience members that though Black people are often expected to be seen and not heard, their time is now. What Veronica doesn’t yet realize is that fate has chosen her to save us from our past – and to uncover a horrific secret that connects her to a Civil War era enslaved woman, Eden (also played by Monáe), toiling in a perfectly manicured cotton field amidst stifling, omnipresent heat, as the Civil War rages around her and others laboring under inhuman circumstances. Across time and different worlds and eras, Eden and Veronica find themselves enveloped in life-altering circumstances.

Antebellum is a terrifying new thriller from activist filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, two exciting new voices in contemporary cinema.

Read more: here

War with Grandpa

Peter and his Grandpa Jack used to be very close, but when Grandpa moves in with the family, Peter is forced to give up his most prized possession, his bedroom. Peter will stop at nothing to get his room back, scheming with friends to devise a series of pranks to drive him out. But, Grandpa doesn’t give up easily and before long, it’s an all-out war!

Directed by Tim Hill with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Laura Marano, Juliocesar Chavez.

Peninsula 

This South Korean action zombie film takes place four years after the zombie outbreak in Train to Busan. The Korean peninsula is devastated and Jung Seok, a former soldier who has managed to escape overseas, is given a mission to go back and unexpectedly meets survivors.

It is directed by Yeon Sang-ho. From a screenplay by Park Joo-Suk and Yeon Sang-ho.

Read more about the latest and upcoming films: writingstudio.co.za/lets-go-to-the-movies