Indigenous movies a breath of fresh air

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At a time when the world is recovering from the festive season's euphoria and business, and the art industry seems somehow quiet and dry, two indigenous movies have hit the shelves.

An experienced, celebrated film maker and producer, Mboswobeni “30 Cent” Mulugana, introduced the latest offerings from Mboswobeni Films recently.

The movies, 30-Cent in Johannesburg (Part 3) and Asi Muvenda, give a breath of fresh air in an industry which has seen all and sundry claiming to be movie makers. “We have worked very hard to make sure that we give people quality comedies at the end of the day,” Mulugana said.

Even though the producer classifies both films as comedies, they are not so comedic as there is less laughter in the plot. The movies tell human stories and are filled with human drama that no viewer can ignore.

Asi Muvenda means that she or he is not a Muvenda. It depicts a story of two lovers, Muthuphei (Muvenda) and Nyeleti (Tsonga). The two characters are played by Livhuwani Madadzhe and Marcia Baloyi.

Asi Muvenda flows like a Romeo and Juliet story – parents from both families do not support the partnership between the lovers and are furious and do not want to see them together. “I wrote the script after realising that there are people who still forbid their children to love this or that other person, based on their own reasons which might not be sound to the children,” Mulugana said. “We do movies which encourage unity, peace, love – and we also do movies for the sake of entertainment.”

30 Cent in Johannesburg (Part 3) tells the story of a young, married man who leaves home to work in the city, but once there, he forgets about his wife and adoring, talented daughter and starts to run after beautiful girls and women. In an emotional scene, he confides to his father that he knows he suffers from the sickness of womanising. “Daddy, I don't know what's wrong with me,” he (Tshidammba) says. His wife eventually decides she has had enough and leaves him.

Mulugana has taken his movies to different national and international film festivals. He has just returned from the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival, which took place in New York. He had the opportunity to brush shoulders with veteran actors and producers in the international industry.

Mulugana was born in Folovhodwe, grew up in Bennde-Mutale near Masisi and moved to Johannesburg in 1998. He is currently in the district, mainly based in Thohoyandou for business purposes.

He can be contacted on 072 847 8990. He is also on Facebook as 30 Cent Mboswobeni Mulugana.

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.