PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews John Trengove, director of the film The Wound.
John Trengove, recipient of the award for Best Feature Film at the Lovers Film Festival 32, talks with us about the unexpected attention the film is getting worldwide. It was an urgent film to make, the only possible film with a gay subject he thought made sense in South Africa. A difficult journey with a rewarding arrival.
The Wound: Eastern South Africa. A group of teenagers, from the Khosa ethnic group, are preparing for the ukwaluka, a rite of passage to adulthood, consisting of circumcisions that take place during a period of isolation in the mountains. Kwanda, a rich, westernized boy, is one of them. Forced to take part in the rite by his father, a traditionalist, who is displeased by the “feebleness” of his son, kwanda is unable to adapt easily to an environment so full of latent aggression and flaunted maleness. Xolani, a 30-year-old worker, a loner and introvert, who is the khaukatha, or mentor, of the group, immediately takes a liking to him and takes care of him. But Kwanda realizes that Xolani is hiding something, a kind of wound that has never healed and that will bleed once again. A courageous and dark bildungsroman, John Trengrove’s debut feature film is a continuation of his short film iBhokhwe, presented at Lovers FF in 2014.
For the official website of the festival, click here.