8th(2006)
Kare Kare Zvako-Mother’s Day
Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Zimbabwe
- 2004
- 30min
- 35mm
- color
SYNOPSIS
A rural village is suffering from hunger caused by a prolonged famine. For her children’s supper, Mother fries ants that she had obtained with great difficulty. But selfish Father has his eye on the ants, and when Mother scolds him for his greediness, he plots a terrible fate for her. This film is a fascinating piece that combines music and fantasy to depict an old Zimbabwe folk tale which the director Dangaremga had heard as a child. This cruel, poignant story meets with Zimbabwe’s pop music and simple dance movements to create a rhythm that is both original and fresh. The director uses her own language to express the cruelty and violence of patriarchy, and the maternal instincts and women’s power that triumph over patriarchy. (Billy Choi)
PROGRAM NOTE
A rural village is suffering from hunger caused by a prolonged famine. For her children’s supper, Mother fries ants that she had obtained with great difficulty. But selfish Father has his eye on the ants, and when Mother scolds him for his greediness, he plots a terrible fate for her. This film is a fascinating piece that combines music and fantasy to depict an old Zimbabwe folk tale which the director Dangaremga had heard as a child. This cruel, poignant story meets with Zimbabwe’s pop music and simple dance movements to create a rhythm that is both original and fresh. The director uses her own language to express the cruelty and violence of patriarchy, and the maternal instincts and women’s power that triumph over patriarchy. (Billy Choi)
Director
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Tsitsi DangarembgaTsitsi Dangarembga
Born in Zimbabwe in 1959, Tsitsi first made her name as a theatre writer/director and a novelist. Her 1989 novel Nervous Conditions was recently named as one of the Best Twelve African Books of the 20th century. She finished her studies at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in 1996 and has since returned to her native Zimbabwe to help setup a film industry there. In Germany, she worked on documentaries and reportages for “Deutsche Welle”, “ORB” and “Arte”. In Zimbabwe, she wrote the story for the most successful local movie Neria and directed Everyone’s Child (1996) as well as several full length documentaries.
Credit
- ProducerOlaf Koschke, Jackie Cahi
- Cast Consolata Ngwenya, Nicolas Mazenda
- Screenwriter Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Cinematography Pierre Mennel
- Editor Olaf Koschke
