News

The nights were dark and stormy for many of the days on the five-week call sheet of “Death of a Whistleblower” but although South African director Ian Gabriel personally detests night shoots, he pushed through since his latest conspiracy thriller about cover-ups and a journalist’s dogged pursuit of the truth simply wouldn’t have felt the same shot in sunshine.

“There’s always been a struggle for the truth in South Africa — in the past, and now,” says Gabriel, who also came up with the story.

His taut topical political thriller, produced by Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri for Known Associates Entertainment, will have its African premiere on Feb. 28 at the Joburg Film Festival with a same-day release on Amazon’s Prime Video. Pic premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival last fall.

Corporal Albert Loots tries to mask his anxiety in “Death of a Whistleblower.”

Starring Noxolo Dlamini, Irshaad Ally,...

Death Of A Whistleblower

It might not be among the biggest name offerings at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but Ian Gabriel’s Death Of A Whistleblower is definitely one of the highlights. Few countries can hold a candle to South Africa these days when it comes to thrillers, and this film finds its substance in the country’s own history. Set 37 years after the death of a young white woman (played by Inez Robertson) at a secret military testing facility, it follows Albert (Irshaad Ally), the soldier who leaks information about the cover up, and Luyanda (Noxolo Diamini), the journalidt who unexpectedly acquires it. As she pursues the story, hitman Mohale (Anthony Oseyemi) pursues her. There’s also some strong supporting work from S’Thandiwe Kgoroge as a corrupt major general whose activities in the present may be connected to the secrets of the past. Though Inez was delayed,...

Many films either overtly or covertly play homage to other films. And it certainly takes a lot of courage to make a film that is an overt homage to a film as iconic as Rear Window. But then, South African director Nosipho Dumisa is no ordinary filmmaker, and her feature debut Number 37 is no ordinary film. Adapting her own short crime thriller is no small, and she has gifted us with a taut, exciting story, with a distinctly South African bent and adaptation of the story to her own culture and understanding, in what is one of the most exciting genre debuts in recent years. After what should have been the perfect score for much-needed cash goes awry, Randal (Irshaad Ally) is now a parapalegic,...

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

In “Number 37,” South African writer-director Nosipho Dumisa takes the basic set-up of one of her favorite films, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” and gives the scenario a fresh setting: the poverty-stricken, crime-ridden region of a Cape Town enclave, far removed from the original movie’s upscale Greenwich Village locale. The result is the impressive debut feature “Number 37″ — a grittier spin on the voyeuristic thriller, anchored by a strong performance by star Irshaad Ally, as well as a socially relevant message.

A devourer of cinema from childhood, Dumisa grew up in a small town not unlike the setting of her film, and never imagined a career as a filmmaker. “We’ve had universities that offered media courses and so forth, but actual film schools are still a relatively new concept in South Africa, maybe 20 years old,” Dumisa said. “So I never really conceived of an idea of an industry behind the making of films.

Many films either overtly or covertly play homage to other films. And it certainly takes a lot of courage to make a film that is an overt homage to a film as iconic as Rear Window. But then, South African director Nosipho Dumisa is no ordinary filmmaker, and her feature debut Number 37 is no ordinary film. Adapting her own short crime thriller is no small, and she has gifted us with a taut, exciting story, with a distinctly South African bent and adaptation of the story to her own culture and understanding, in what is one of the most exciting genre debuts in recent years. After what should have been the perfect score for much-needed cash goes awry, Randal (Irshaad Ally) is now a parapalegic,...

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

It was a calculated risk lock-picker Randal Hendricks (Irshaad Ally) was willing to make. Borrow twenty-five thousand dollars from a loan shark he’s known since childhood (Danny Ross’ Emmie) and flip it to some gangsters willing to give him a deal on drugs. Sell the drugs at a mark-up and he should have enough to get himself and his girlfriend Pam (Monique Rockman) out of their rough Cape Town slum. Like Emmie warned, however, gangsters aren’t to be trusted. So when we meet Randal again months later to discover him a paraplegic being carried to his apartment by a neighbor (Ephram Gordon’s Warren), it’s easy to assume things went south. Now broke, unable to walk, and indebted to a psychopath, the clock on his life begins counting down.

Writer/director Nosipho Dumisa’s Number 37 picks up much like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window began: at a window,...

Exclusive: Hot SXSW title Number 37, a Hitchcockian South African crime thriller, is heading to theaters in the U.S. after Dark Star Pictures picked up all North American rights.

The film, which is the directorial debut of Nosipho Dumisa, is to get a fall theatrical release, starting in New York and L.A., followed by an early winter video-on-demand release.

Number 37, which started out as a short film before picking up steam after the festival route, aired as part of the Narrative Feature section at the Austin fest earlier this year.

The plot of the Afrikaans-language pic is an homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window and centers on Randall, a low-level criminal recently crippled in an illicit deal gone wrong. Cooped up in his apartment in a rough Cape Town neighborhood, he is heavily indebted to a loan shark named Emmie with the clock ticking for him and his girlfriend...

If you’re going to steal, steal from the best. That certainly applies to South African writer-director Nosipho Dumisa, who takes the premise of one of her favorite films, Alfred Hitchcock’s voyeuristic man-in-a-wheelchair thriller Rear Window (1954), and gives it a grittier, much more sanguine spin in her debut feature Number 37. Would that her lead character, Randal Hendricks (Irshaad Ally), followed the same advice. He just borrows and takes from the worst of the worst: First from a loan shark, Emmie (Danny Ross), whose interest charges on late payments are of the life-ending variety. And second, from a bunch of...

Here's a tasty little something from South Africa with the trailer for award winning short film Nommer 37. Co-directed by Nosipho Dumisa and Travis Taute the film's premise is a deliberate nod to Hitchcock's Rear Window with the story transplanted to the gritty underbelly of the Cape Town and the results look absolutely fantastic.Nommer 37 tells the story of Randal (Irshaad Ally), a career criminal recently crippled by an injury sustained during a shady deal gone horribly wrong. Wheelchair-bound and cooped up in his apartment in a rough Cape Town neighbourhood, with no-one to support him except his devoted girlfriend Pam (Shamilla Miller), Randal is heavily indebted to a ruthless loan shark. With no way of paying the money back, he despairs for himself and...

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