News

The Award winning director and executive producer of the critically acclaimed South African neo-noir "Of Good Report" (winner of 7 SAFTAs in 2014), Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Lwazi Manzi, have joined forces with Spier Films to develop and produce a number of new films through both Spier Films and a new joint venture called Mercurial Pictures. Films include: - "The White Devil" - a supernatural thriller which Spier Films hopes to shoot in March next year in the UK. - "Dead By Dawn" - a Us set cop thriller to be financed and shot in South Africa in collaboration with Justin Cohen’s Picturescope. The screenplay is being written by Sean Drummond who...

Great news for those in the USA who've wanted to see the film, but haven't had the opportunity, since it was never formerly released on any format in the USA, following its international film festival run that began in 2013. A theatrical release would've been preferred, because I think it's a film that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Alas, you'll have to settle for the smaller screen experience - unless you have one of those humongous HD TV screens in your home, which will give you as close to a theatrical experience as it can. I learned over the weekend that "Of Good Report," the once-banned South African neo-noir directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (one of the 10 filmmakers...

The Riders

Director: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka // Writer: Susie Brooks-Smith

South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka made headlines in 2013 when his sophomore film Of Good Report was banned shortly before it was set to premiere at the Durban International Film Festival due to sensitive subject matter involving a high school teacher carrying on a sexually charged affair with one of his female students (thankfully, it was programmed and played at Tiff). An homage to film noir, Qubeka’s moody, psychologically inclined thriller announced the filmmaker as an intriguing talent, and though Report is still sadly without Us distribution, we’re excited to see he’s working on a UK production, The Riders, with filming to take place in London and Croatia. The film tells the tale of a man searching across Europe for his missing wife with his child in tow.

Cast: Liam McIntyre, Pixie Davies, Alison Carroll

Production Co.: Trinity Pictures

U.

The South African cinema scene continues to grow from strength to strength. Exciting new directing and acting talent seems to appear each year, and a burgeoning generation of riveting young film-makers is now established and gaining global momentum. This year they produced exemplary work in genres as diverse as action, drama, comedy, noir, documentary, and art-house thriller (or whatever Of Good Report is).Catch trailers for some of the best South African films to grace our screens in 2014 in our gallery, as well as a couple of other African productions that particularly captured our eye or imagination....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Of Good Report is an astonishing South African noir thriller -- I've never seen better South African film making -- about a teacher-pupil relationship that spirals into obsession and violence. The film was selected as the opening film for the 2013 Durban International Film Festival (Diff), and was scheduled to screen exactly one year ago today. Instead, on the eve of the festival, South African authorities banned the film for depictions of child pornography, the first such censorship of a South African production since the days of Apartheid. In hindsight the irony is heavy; Of Good Report is so obviously a scathing indictment of the very sexual predation that the censors used to justify its banning. So why review it now, a year after the fact? Because...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Company is expected shortly to announce a partnership with a major Benelux distributor.

Umedia has confirmed a pre-production date of May 29 and a new director in Jahmil Xt Qubeka on its drama The Riders.

The cast is headline by Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), Pixie Davies and Richard E Grant. Susie Brooks-Smith is producing, Umedia is handling world sales.

Qubeka’s film Of Good Report, about a teacher-student relationship, was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival last year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board. It was later cleared.

The news comes as Umedia, which has raised €330m through the Belgian tax shelter system over the last decade, is preparing to expand further.

Umedia employs 100 people and is headquartered in Brussels, has offices in London, Los Angeles and Paris. It is active in financing, production and sales and supports 30 to 40 films a year.

The company...

Editor's Note: It makes it New York premiere at the 21st New York African Film Festival (Nyaff), which kicked off yesterday, May 7, and will run through May 13, with the theme “Revolution and Liberation in the Digital Age.” Here's our previous review of the film... Qubeka, one of the 10 filmmakers on S&A's filmmakers to watch in 2014 list, premiered Of Good Report last year to controversy at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, where the film was censored following the classification refusal by the South African Film and Publications Board, citing that it "promotes child...

The South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs), considered to be South Africa's equivalent of the Oscars, and the premier film and television industry awards in the country, announced its winners this past weekend.  The SAFTAs are under the custodianship of the National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf), and only South African film and television productions are eligible for the awards. Jamil X.T. Qubeka's controversial film Of Good Report won big at the awards, winning best supporting actor (Tshamano Sebe), best supporting actress (Tina Jaxa), best actor (Mothusi Magano), best writing and directing (Jahmil X.T. Qubeka), and last but not...

Jahmil Xt Qubeka's drama Of Good Report, which had been at the center of a controversy during last year's Durban International Film Festival, won the best feature film honor at the eighth South African Film and Television Awards (Safta) this weekend. ‎The film beat out Justin Chadwick's Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba, and Barry Berke's drama Sleeper’s Wake, and also ‎earned a slew of other honors. The Safta Awards ceremony, hosted by comedians Tumi Morake and Alan Committie, once again honored and celebrated quality and excellence in South African film and TV. The winners

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I love it when up-and-coming relatively-unknown filmmakers whose work I really appreciate, progress.  South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, whose controversial serial killer origins film Of Good Report, was initially banned by South African censors as it was about to make its World Premiere, will be making his USA debut with a romantic comedy titled Heaven Hath No Fury, written by Leon Chills and Chad Sanders, for New York-based D Street Pictures. You'll recall that we announced the project in January, when D Street optioned it, and, as I recall, your reactions were mixed.The story follows a New York playboy whose decision to break the wrong...

South African director boards Us romantic comedy.

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, whose controversial film Of Good Report was initially banned by South African censors, is to direct Us romantic comedy Heaven Hath No Fury, written by Leon Chills and Chad Sanders, for New York-based D Street Media Group.

It marks Qubeka’s debut in the Us and his first film since 2013’s Of Good Report, about a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil that was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival last year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board.

It has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers and won the La BAFTA for Best Feature at the 2014 Pan African Film Festival last month.

Heaven Hath No Fury follows a New York playboy whose decision to break the wrong woman’s heart, knocks the world out of kilter, as men start...

I love this trio of Opening Night, Centerpiece and Closing Night films that the Pan African Film Festival (Paff) will screen, when the festival takes over Rave Cinemas Baldwin Hills 15 at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles, starting Tonight, February 6-17, 2014.A non-American Diaspora (specifically South African) film in Of Good Report, opening the festival; a Hollywood production in About Last Night, as the festival's centerpiece film, making its World Premiere; and an independent film in Blackbird, closing the festival.Unfortunately, I've only seen one of them I've seen (Of Good Report) and highly recommend it for those attending the festival. But the...

South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's thriller Of Good Report, will be the opening night film at this year's Pan African Film Festival (Paff), which is Tonight, February 6. Qubeka, one of the 10 filmmakers on S&A's filmmakers to watch in 2014 list, premiered Of Good Report last year to controversy at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, where the film was censored following the classification refusal by the South African Film and Publications Board, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," an unfounded accusation, from someone who's...

Posthumous award announced as nominations revealed for the 9th Screen Nation Film & Television Awards.

Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).

Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.

Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.

Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.

The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...

Posthumous award announced as nominations revealed for the 9th Screen Nation Film & Television Awards.

Guest announcers Fernand Frimpong Jnr, from Vox Africa, and Venus vs.Mars actress Letitia Hector revealed the nominations in London (see below for full list).

Felix Dexter, the late comedian and actor, will be posthumously awarded the Edric Connor Inspiration award.

Actor-director Bill Duke, best known for his roles in Commando and Predator, is to receive the Outstanding Contribution award.

Honorary awards will also be bestowed on classic works such as Do the Right Thing, The Cosby Show and Desmond’s.

The awards ceremony will take place at Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London on Feb 23. The ceremony will be hosted by the Ali Baba, known as the Godfather of Nigerian comedy, and Caroline Chikezie, best known for her role in Us series 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Voting for the nominees in all categories will be open to the public from today (Jan 23) until...

Shadow & Act has learned exclusively that South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's thriller Of Good Report, will be the opening night film at this year's Pan African Film Festival (Paff) which runs from February 6-17, 2014. Qubeka, one of the 10 filmmakers on S&A's filmmakers to watch in 2014 list, premiered Of Good Report last year to controversy at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, where the film was censored following the classification refusal by the South African Film and Publications Board, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," an...

Film Africa - London’s annual celebration of African cinema - returns for a third year, starting tonight, Friday, November 1, with a line-up of over 60 films from across the continent screening at six major venues across London. Film Africa 2013 launches with the controversial new film, Of Good Report, from South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka. Briefly banned from showing at the Durban International Film Festival on account of its provocative, Lolita-inspired subject matter,Of Good Report is a thrilling, devilishly comic and supremely assured work from one of Africa’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers. Film Africa 2013 also includes a new...

Of Good Report will be screening this Saturday, October 26th as part of the Africa in Motion Film Festival (AiM).Scotland’s biggest celebration of African cinema, Africa in Motion (AiM) Film Festival, now in its eighth year, kicked off its 2013 celebration last night, October 24, 2013. The festival returns to Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh, Glasgow Film Theatre (Gft) & Centre for Contemporary Arts (Cca), Glasgow, plus ‘pop-up’ cinema venues in both cities.. The reasons for its controversial initial banning in the filmmaker's native South Africa, are easily identified, although for those who've been...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave to open festival; director Peter Greenaway to receive Visionary Award.Scroll down for full line-up

Steve McQueen’s historic drama 12 Years a Slave is to open the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 6-17) and is nominated in the Stockholm Xxiv Competition.

Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, the drama about free black man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery in the 1850s debuted at Telluride and has received positive reactions throughout its festival tour of Toronto, New York and London among others.

It will be released in Sweden on Dec 20 by Ab Svensk Filmindustri.

Screenwriter John Ridley, who will be present during the festival, is nominated for the Aluminum Horse in the category Best Script.

McQueen’s Hunger won Best Directorial Debut at Stockholm in 2008.

Line-up

The 24th Siff includes more than 180 films from more than 50 countries.

As previously announced, the spotlight of this year’s festival is freedom but Chinese artist...

Four biggest African film festivals in the UK unite to share films and filmmakers.

The UK’s biggest four African film festivals are uniting to share features and filmmakers in a bid to bring a greater variety of contemporary African cinema to a broader UK audience.

The festivals include Africa in Motion (AiM) in Edinburgh/Glasgow, Afrika Eye in Bristol, the Cambridge African Film Festival and Film Africa, London.

The four have joined forces to tour a quartet of new features from Africa and to enable UK cinema-goers to talk to three directors about their work. The shared programme includes:

Judy Kibinge, a rising star on the Kenyan cinema scene, presenting Something Necessary, her drama about political violence in Kenya, followed by a Q&A at AiM, Afrika Eye and Film Africa (with a screening at the Cambridge African Film Festival).

South African Jahmil X.T. Qubeka presenting and discussing Of Good Report, his controversial...

It’s fair to say that when you discover a film has been banned in its respective country of origin, intrigue kicks in as you wonder what it was about this particular feature that caused so much controversy. However it only takes a mere matter of seconds to work it out in Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s Of Good Report, as this South African picture begins with a man picking bits of metal out of his skull – and from this point onwards, the shock factor grows to become more intense, and more severe.

The man in question is Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano), an introverted high school teacher who arrives in town on the hunt for a new job. However he gets more than he bargained for when he enters in to a passionate, sexual affair with his student Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma). Though unaware she’s a student of his to begin with,...

A teacher-pupil affair spirals into sexual obsession and violence in this edge-of-the-seat thriller from Jahmil Xt Qubeka

The London film festival has presented me with an exciting discovery this year: the South African film-maker Jahmil Xt Qubeka, who brings some scalding steam-heat with a sensational noir thriller in black and white called Of Good Report. (It is actually his third feature, following two previous films, uMalusi and A Small Town Called Descent, which have yet to show up on IMDb.) Watching this brazenly shocking and gripping film, I remembered the feeling I had on seeing Christopher Nolan's low-budget black-and-white debut, Following. Here is a director who is going places.

The drama concerns a shy, spindly, bespectacled young man called Parker Sithole, played by Mothusi Magano. He has an enigmatic, stricken look – like Jack Nance in Eraserhead or Anthony Perkins in Psycho. Parker is new in town, having turned up...

Rounding up the weekend in film, plus what's coming up today

What did you watch this weekend – and how did you rate it?

Rejoicing through the cinema chains of Britain over the weekend on account of the horrible weather. When the reports come in, we're expecting bumper attendance. So what did you see, and what did you reckon to it? If it was The Fifth Estate, Le Week-End or Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, why not chip in the comment thread beneath last Friday's comment thread.

You can find the full complement of Mark Kermode's reviews from Sunday here, plus Peter Bradshaw's here, as well as Philip French on a classic reissue (The Mummy) and Guy Lodge on a new DVD release (Behind the Candelabra).

You may have missed

As well as Mark et al's reviews, you might...

★★★★☆ Rasping breath accompanies a pristine, monochrome shot from the point-of-view of a man stumbling across an area of scrubland. Two workmen stop to stare as he is revealed like some sub-Saharan gunslinger, pistol protruding from the top of his trousers, face and shirt awash with blood. A stark close-up follows his hand as he painfully extracts two teeth that have somehow been embedded in the top of his head; he laughs maniacally. Welcome to the weird and uncomfortably disturbing world of Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's noirish, blackly comic tale of obsession, Of Good Report (2013), in show at this year's Lff.

Briefly banned in its native South Africa, this is the provocative tale of teacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) who arrives at a small provincial school with the titular commendation. Without uttering a single line of dialogue, he commands attention from the get-go with his horrifying transformation from nebbish lecturer to...

The reasons for its controversial initial banning in the filmmaker' native South Africa, are easily identified, although for those who've been exposed to far more gratuitous displays of sexuality and violence on screen (there's an abundance of that here in the USA), Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's sophomore feature directorial effort, the serial killer origins story, Of Good Report, is tame. Without giving too much of the plot away, in brief, a high school teacher gets involved with one of his students, and, in the end, it's a story that doesn't end well - as you'd probably expect. To say anymore on the plot would be to ruin your viewing experience when you do eventually get around to watching...

Controversial film Of Good Report, initially banned by South African censors for its depiction of a teacher’s affair with a pupil, has been picked up by sales agent 6 Sales ahead of its world premiere at Toronto.

Of Good Report stars Mothusi Magano as a teacher who embarks on an affair with his pupil, played by Petronella Tshuma, with tragic consequences.

The film was prevented from opening the Durban International Film Festival earlier this year due to a refusal of classification by the South African Film and Publications Board, but has since screened in South Africa following a successful appeal by the producers.

6 Sales will act as sales agent for the film, which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) on Sept 6. It has also been selected for the Official Competition of the London Film Festival, which runs next month.

Of Good Report was directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and produced by Michael Auret of [link...

One of the movies flying below the radar of the festival circuit line-ups is Jahmil Xt Qubeka's South African ode to the noir Of Good Report. But Qubeka's film is not a mystery but rather a thriller that was, for a period, banned in the writer/director's native South Africa.

Mothusi Magano stars as Parker Sithole, a newly recruited teacher who has a sexual encounter at a bar with a woman he thinks is in her twenties but later turns out to be underage and a student in his class but what started as a one time chance encounter soon turns into an obsession that unravels Sithole, a man already a bit unhinged.

The trailer for Of Good Report is gorgeous, a stark black and white affair that is loaded with sexuality and the music gives it the feel of a fevered dream that spirals [Continued ...]...

Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film is now officially "unbanned," after opening in South African theaters 2 weeks ago, on August 9th! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating.  The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the festival, as a result of the refusal...

Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film is now officially "unbanned," after opening in South African theaters last week, on August 9th! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating.  The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the festival, as a result of the refusal...

Following the censorship controversy over South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka's Of Good Report, at the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, last month, the film has now been "unbanned" as the below teaser states, and is set to open in South African theaters this week, on August 9th! Success! Following the refusal to classify the film, citing that it "promotes child abuse & pornography," the South African Film and Publications Board reversed their decision and gave the film the Us equivalent of an R-rating.  The film was not screened in any of its allocated slots during the...

Film board criticised for apartheid-style curbs on freedom of expression after first mainstream movie banned since 1994

South Africa has been accused of apartheid-style censorship after banning a mainstream film for the first time since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

Of Good Report, which tells the story of a schoolteacher who has a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student, was due to open last week's Durban international film festival. The censors reportedly cited "child pornography" as the reason for the ban.

Instead of the film, the festival audience was confronted with an on-screen statement: "This film has been refused classification by the film and publications board, in terms of the Film and Publications Act of 1996. Unfortunately we may not legally screen the film Of Good Report as doing so would constitute a criminal offence."

Jahmil Xt Qubeka, the film's director and a father of two children, appeared on stage with his mouth taped in protest.

Drama pulled from opening night of Durban Film Festival; Look of Love screening also cancelled.

South African censor Fpb [Film and Publication Board] has pulled the Durban International Film Festival’s opening night film on the basis that it contains child pornography, according to South Africa’s Mail & Guardian.

Jahmil Xt Qubeka’s film Of Good Report tells the story of a teacher who is a sexual predator that grooms and seduces one of his students.

Audiences were not given any warning of the cancellation but instead, when lights were dimmed, were greeted with the message: “This film has been refused classification by the Fpb [Film and Publication Board] in terms of the Fpb Act 1996. Unfortunately we may not screen the film Of Good Report as to do so would constitute a criminal offence.”

On stage, Qubeka burned his identity document and taped his mouth shut. According to Mail & Guardian website, ‘the audience reacted to the event in stunned silence and disbelief’.

Diff manager [link=nm...

South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (his last feature film, A Small Town Called Descent, was profiled on this site), was to see his follow-up to that film, Of Good Report, open the 34th Durban International Film Festival (Diff), in Durban, South Africa, today, July 18.  But, as you can see in the image above, that didn't happen. My Twitter feed has been buzzing a bit in the last hour, as Diff attendees tweet their disgust with the above decision. In short, from what my research tells me, the Films and Publications Act of 1996 (mentioned in the image) is an Act of the South African Parliament, which was created post-Apartheid, to evaluate...

South African filmmaker Jahmil X.T. Qubeka (you may recall his last feature film, A Small Town Called Descent, was profiled on this site), will see his follow-up to that film, Of Good Report, open the 34th Durban International Film Festival, which runs from July 18-28. Qubeka's film, described as an homage to classic film noir, tells the story of a demented school teacher's attempts to get away with the brutal murder of a teenage beauty queen.  The teacher gets involved with one of his students, which obviously doesn't end well. Jahmil calls it a "serial killer origins story about how a social misfit turns into an inadequate man hell-bent on satisfying his shameful...