Sihle Hlophe | South Africa | 8:00 | Documentary
Status: Official Selection *Watch Now*
David, a Congolese national who has been living in South Africa for 17 years, is detained at Lindela Repatriation Centre during Level 5 of the national lockdown. During his time as a deportee, he manages to get hold of an illegal cellphone. He uses the cellphone to leak cellphone footage to his older brother, Omar. The footage exposes the Human Rights violations happening at Lindela. It also shows that there are not enough measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Although David is detained for the maximum period of 120 days, the authorities inform him that he will be detained indefinitely because of the ongoing national lockdown. Frustrated, David and a group of fellow deportees organise a protest march. Unfortunately David is not prepared for the repercussions thereof.
Director Biography – Sihle Hlophe
Sihle Hlophe is an award-winning filmmaker and a multi-degree earner. Over the last 11 years, her work has been recognised with a number of accolades. Hlophe is an alumni of the prestigious IDFAcademy (the Netherlands), the North-South-South Student Exchange Program (Finland) and the Hot Docs Blue Ice Group Story Lab (Canada). She is also the founder and executive producer of Passion Seed Communications, a for-profit social enterprise that develops social impact films and campaigns for underserved audience members. Hlophe recently co-produced ‘Sadla’, a short film that has premiered at Sundance and TIFF. Hlophe has written and directed two award-winning narrative short films that have been screened at over 30 film festivals around the world. Hlophe is currently writing her debut feature length fiction film for nationwide theatrical release. She is the producer and director of a feature length documentary, “Lobola, A Bride’s True Price” (Most Outstanding Documentary Project, Durban Film Mart, 2017); due for release in 2021. She has worked as a scriptwriter and storyliner on popular TV programs such as “Lockdown”, “Scandal”, “Mutual Friends”, “Broken Vows” “Ya Lla” and “Isipho”. Hlophe also has experience as a lecturer at AFDA (2016) and the University of Johannesburg (2018/19).