The highly anticipated feature-length documentary film “Lobola, A Bride’s True Price?” which premiered at the 24th edition of the Encounters South African Documentary Film Festival is part of next week’s film screenings schedule at The Bioscope in Johannesburg.
“Lobola, A Bride’s True Price?” was produced by award-winning film-driven social enterprise, Passion Seed Communications (PSC). It was directed and produced by Sihle Hlophe.
Hlophe is a multi-award-winning filmmaker whose work has been recognized with numerous accolades including a SAFTA and an Africa Movie Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary.
She’s directed a narrative feature-length film, a feature-length documentary, a 13-part mock-series, and four short films that have been screened at over 60 film festivals around the world.
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About: “Lobola, A Bride’s True Price?
“Lobola, A Bride’s True Price?” is a personal film that follows opinionated filmmaker Sihle Hlophe as she decides whether she will accept Lobola or not, after her boyfriend proposes to her.
Lobola is a cultural practice that unifies the families of two individuals who want to get married and their respective ancestors. Lobola is practised in most African countries and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as dowry.
The film charts Hlophe’s journey from several years before her wedding up until the big day, during which time she documents numerous Lobola negotiations around the country in an effort to properly understand this sacred and highly revered cultural practice.
Fueled by the tensions between the director’s own beliefs, her desire to please her family and respect her culture and ancestors, the film echoes tensions similar in cultures the world over, in terms of shifting gender roles in the 21st century.
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