FORGET about the Nollyhood films, the magic, superstition and ghosts that are a reflection of a section of society in West Africa’s Nigeria and get local where a love triangle story is slowly but surely ripening in the incubator and will be showing on the small screen very soon.
The drama film talks about cheating that has become universal although its consequences are known to be debilitating. It encourages prayerfulness and knowing confidential boundaries.
The locally produced drama film Xola Sitha set in Bulawayo and moulded in the form of South Africa’s popular soapies such as Uzalo, Isibaya and Muvhango is somehow going to close the gap that currently exists in the country’s Ndebele film productions.
Film producer Dorcas Maseko told Sunday Life that she was through with the script, the cast and all that was needed except that she has not yet gotten a willing partner to share the costs with.
She has assembled a cast of 15 veteran and new artistes to tell the love triangle story that exposes the use of juju in love, cheating, confidence betraying, backstabbing and how love can create enemies out of the best of friends.
“Without unpacking the whole storyline, the drama film Xola Sitha is about a lady who was pleading with her enemies for mercy — for forgiveness. She was very prayerful and would often dream of a neighbour tormenting her and causing a lot of trouble in her life, her marriage. She would confide in her friend and the friend would confess ignorance and even fuel hatred between her and her neighbour who she was seeing in her dreams,” said Dorcas.
She said through constant prayer, she later found out that her friend who she was confiding in was cheating with her husband and was the one who was tormenting her through juju where she would mask herself behind the neighbour of the cheated friend.
“I am done with almost everything and I am looking for a partner. I am hoping the talks I have had with some big corporate will materialise because the cast is ready and raring to go. We will run 13 episodes of the drama film and i hope we will manage to attract a competitive buyer for our production,” she said.
Dorcas added that although the drama film was done in Ndebele they were going to do subtitling in English so that even those not conversant in Ndebele would enjoy the production.
She said she got inspiration from the things happening around her and from arts gurus such as Cont Mhlanga who she spoke highly of as someone very approachable and quite helpful in the country’s arts sector.
Asked what she thought was the biggest undoing in the country’s film industry, she highlighted that the industry was not paying because there was no competition as the monopoly of ZBCtv was stifling.
She said she was happy that the Government was talking of opening up airwaves saying it was going to improve production and competition which would also call for top drawer quality.
“The problem is that there are artistes who are in the industry just for money. They are not driven by passion but by money. I believe money should come as a result of passion — a by-product of what one does out of unconditional willingness and not vice versa,” said Dorcas.
She added that although the drama film Xola Sitha was not her first arts production, having written another one that is yet to come out —
The Brotherly Covenant, she feels she is not lost in the arts and urged women to take up the challenge and get their stories out.
“I think a lot of women out there should be involved more in the films industry. I challenge them to get out of their shells and tell their stories. They shouldn’t be afraid of the uknown,” she said.
Dorcas is the author of the book — The Kind of Love we Deserve.