''The Wooden Camera'' is a 2003 South African film directed by Ntshavheni wa Luruli and starring Junior Singo, Dana de Agrella, and Innocent Msimango.

Plot

The film takes place in and around

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and a nearby

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Khayelitsha Khayelitsha () is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for ''New Home''. It is reputed to be the largest

. The film centers around two teenage friends, the younger Madiba ( Junior Singo) and the elder Sipho ( Innocent Msimango). One day, as they are playing alongside the railroad tracks, they find a dead body. With him they find a gun with one bullet and a video camera. Sipho takes the gun and Madiba takes the camera, which he puts inside a wooden toy camera to make it seem a not-working toy. Sipho seems to harmlessly joke about the gun at first, but begins spending more time in Cape Town, robbing parking meters and paying for glue to sniff. He eventually starts living in abandoned places in Cape Town with a group of thugs. Madiba films the world around him, finding beauty in both Khayelitsha and Cape Town. He tries many filming techniques and is skilled, but finds his videos very personal and does not normally let other people see them. While in Cape Town, he meets and forges an unlikely friendship with a white Cape Town girl, Estelle ( Dana de Agrella) from a rich family, who gets into conflict with her racist father about this. Sipho uses the gun to rob people. Madiba disapproves and does not want any of the stolen money, but still considers him his friend. One of Sipho's robberies goes wrong and he is killed. In the end Madiba and Estelle run off and take a train together.

Awards

* 2004

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

Won - Best Feature Film (Ntshavheni wa Luruli) * 2004

Paris Film Festival The Festival du Film de Paris, also known as Paris Film Festival, was a film festival held annually in Paris, France. It was launched in 1986 as a youth-oriented festival. In 2002, the municipal government withdrew funding and began Festival Paris ...

**Won - Best Cinematography (Gordon Spooner) **Won - Prix

Henri Alekan Henri Alekan (10 February 1909, Paris – 15 June 2001, Auxerre, Bourgogne) was a French cinematographer. Life Alekan was born in Montmartre in 1909. At the age of sixteen he and his brother became travelling puppeteers. A little later he ...

(Gordon Spooner) * 2004

Rotterdam International Film Festival The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

Nominated - Tiger Award (Ntshavheni wa Luruli)

External links

* 2003 films 2000s English-language films English-language South African films 2003 drama films Films shot in South Africa South African drama films {{2000s-drama-film-stub