adminVincent Gono/Lawrence Moyo Sunday Leisure Reporters
THE Nambyan drama movie Shetani which was produced last year in South Africa by a group of locals from Hwange has become an instant hit and is virtually on everyone’s lips in the mining town where the language is pre-dominantly spoken and has become one of the productions meant to celebrate the country’s lingual diversity.
The name Shetani is Nambya and it literally means to suffer and it can be heard being jokingly said in Hwange. Such is the mood in the mining town where there is an increased excitement as the community celebrates its own sons and daughters who have managed to put their language on the entertainment map.
Prior to the movie, there was little if anything to point to in the film industry that was done by the locals to promote the Nambya which was one of the languages deemed minority until it and other languages were recognised as official in the new constitution.
The Nambyan movie was done in South Africa and was directed by Sydney Wachimwa.
It is a movie that portrays the dire consequences of infidelity, hate and betrayal where poorly-dressed Shetani goes to South Africa to visit her husband who is a gardener. After a short period of time in South Africa she falls into the trap of the fast South African life and falls in love with a young man.
As a result of the affair, she starts giving problems to her husband who tried to reason with her but she was adamant. The husband eventually gets fed up and dumps her for another woman, Chibani, a character played by Penelope Chuma. Shetani starts to suffer as a result of her infidelity.
Sunday Leisure spoke to the lead actor in the movie Shetani who has taken the film industry by storm. Her real name is Treenah Ndhlovu who was born some 42 years ago in Bulawayo to a Tonga father and a Nambyan mother.
Although she is a new entrant in the film industry, the confidence that she exhibits in the movie doesn’t show any signs of her being a novice.
She said she was excited about being the lead actor and vowed not to stop acting, promising that they were going to churn out more movies that educate and entertain the local community as they sought to promote Nambyan culture through acting.
Growing up, Treenah said she loved theatre but never got a real chance to showcase her acting prowess until recently when she got the lead role in Shetani.
“I am delighted that I have at my age managed to realise my dream of breaking through into the film industry. It’s exciting when you deliver something that the community readily receives, it cheers you up and motivates you to even do better.
“Shetani was well received in Hwange which was our initial target market. We realised a lot has been done in Ndebele and in Shona and shown on television but the Nambyan community was being starved of drama movies because there were no productions by locals. So we just decided to fill in that gap and promote the language,” she said.
She said she was greatly inspired by her late mother who had some acting skills but never got the chance to expose herself to a much larger audience because there was little vibrancy in the film industry in the country.
“My mother was full of humour but did not get the opportunity to demonstrate her acting skills as I have done. I also express my gratitude to the director Wachimwa for identifying me and landing me the leading role,” she said.
She further thanked the cast of Shetani which consists of eleven actors from Hwange who are based in South Africa in its entirety for their unity of purpose.
“It was a pleasure working with the cast of eleven. We are promising more entertaining movies as we work to put the Nambya language on the map in the arts sector of the country,” said Treenah who has now become a celebrity in the largely Nambyan community of Hwange.
Asked on whether they are plans to reach to a wider market by doing their movies in English she said they have not gotten to that stage.
She was, however, optimistic that with time they would go national and even international as they were gaining considerable ground in the industry in South Africa.
She is a mother of two and said her parents divorced when she was just five years and she went with her mother where they stayed in Mbizha communal lands in Hwange. She grew up in the care of her maternal grandfather and did her primary education there.
Her parents later remarried and they relocated to Bulawayo where she continued with her education and is now based in South Africa where she has managed to break into theatre.
Of the film industry she said there was a lot of talent in the country but there were no resources hence the flocking of actors to South Africa where there was much appreciation.
Online Reporter