Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 7, 2015 21:38:05 GMT -6
variety.com/2015/film/global/south-african-reboot-of-la-boheme-to-bow-at-berlin-film-festival-1201423150/
The South African team behind 2005 Golden Bear winner “U-Carmen eKhayelitsha” will be taking a new adaptation of “La Boheme” to Berlin this year.
“Breathe — Umphefumlo,” which transports the classic Puccini opera to a Cape Town township, will have its world premiere Feb. 8 as a special presentation at the 65th Berlinale.
As with “U-Carmen,” which was an adaptation of Bizet’s opera, featuring South Africa’s award-winning Isango Ensemble, helmer Mark Dornford-May looked for a way to translate “La Boheme” to a modern South African township setting — a hallmark of the group, which was founded in 2000 by Dornford-May, and draws its performers from the distinct neighborhoods surrounding Cape Town.
The director says he found parallels between the Paris of “La Boheme” and contemporary Cape Town in an unlikely place: Tuberculosis claims the life of one of the main characters in the original opera, set in the 1840s, and continues to be a deadly scourge in contemporary South Africa. ““The film started … from wanting to say something about a South African issue,” Dornford-May says.
The pic is a partnership among South Africa’s Isango Advantage, the U.K.’s Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) and Germany’s Propeller Film, and was produced by Dornford-May for Isango and Vlokkie Gordon of Advantage Entertainment on a budget of less than $500,000. Fortissimo Films has taken worldwide rights to the pic.
It’s the latest attempt by Dornford-May and the ensemble to move their work from the stage to the screen. The group first produced “Breathe” for the boards in 2010. After its Cape Town premiere, the show traveled to the U.K., France and Japan.
Isango is next planning an adaptation of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” while the helmer is also exploring a way to bring Mozart’s “Magic Flute” to the bigscreen.
More important than the global accolades, though, is the response the group’s work has received back home. When “U-Carmen” was released in 2005, it played to sold-out screenings in the Khayelitsha township for three weeks, with auds in the impoverished area allowed to pay what they could for a ticket.
With “Breathe,” the helmer says he was encouraged by the way the production attracted so much of the South African industry’s above- and below-the-line talent.
“People wanted to be part of a film that was a South African product,” he says. “That’s a really good sign for the industry. People want to feel like they can be a part of the stories that we
tell here.”
The South African team behind 2005 Golden Bear winner “U-Carmen eKhayelitsha” will be taking a new adaptation of “La Boheme” to Berlin this year.
“Breathe — Umphefumlo,” which transports the classic Puccini opera to a Cape Town township, will have its world premiere Feb. 8 as a special presentation at the 65th Berlinale.
As with “U-Carmen,” which was an adaptation of Bizet’s opera, featuring South Africa’s award-winning Isango Ensemble, helmer Mark Dornford-May looked for a way to translate “La Boheme” to a modern South African township setting — a hallmark of the group, which was founded in 2000 by Dornford-May, and draws its performers from the distinct neighborhoods surrounding Cape Town.
The director says he found parallels between the Paris of “La Boheme” and contemporary Cape Town in an unlikely place: Tuberculosis claims the life of one of the main characters in the original opera, set in the 1840s, and continues to be a deadly scourge in contemporary South Africa. ““The film started … from wanting to say something about a South African issue,” Dornford-May says.
The pic is a partnership among South Africa’s Isango Advantage, the U.K.’s Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) and Germany’s Propeller Film, and was produced by Dornford-May for Isango and Vlokkie Gordon of Advantage Entertainment on a budget of less than $500,000. Fortissimo Films has taken worldwide rights to the pic.
It’s the latest attempt by Dornford-May and the ensemble to move their work from the stage to the screen. The group first produced “Breathe” for the boards in 2010. After its Cape Town premiere, the show traveled to the U.K., France and Japan.
Isango is next planning an adaptation of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” while the helmer is also exploring a way to bring Mozart’s “Magic Flute” to the bigscreen.
More important than the global accolades, though, is the response the group’s work has received back home. When “U-Carmen” was released in 2005, it played to sold-out screenings in the Khayelitsha township for three weeks, with auds in the impoverished area allowed to pay what they could for a ticket.
With “Breathe,” the helmer says he was encouraged by the way the production attracted so much of the South African industry’s above- and below-the-line talent.
“People wanted to be part of a film that was a South African product,” he says. “That’s a really good sign for the industry. People want to feel like they can be a part of the stories that we
tell here.”