THE TOWN
DIRECTED BY LINDIWE MAKGALEMELE
SOUTH AFRICA // 2021
15 MINS
Lesedi spends her days throwing stones at passing cars and hoping for something to happen. Unexpectedly, a car breaks down leading her to fear that she is responsible. Still, a transient connection is formed between Lesedi and the reluctant visitor.
Reflective Encounters
“Before a single word of dialogue is uttered, Lindiwe Makgalemele deftly establishes the setting of The Town, capturing the stifling heat, isolation and innocence with long sparse shots that deliberately linger. Long hazy shots introduce the young protagonist Lesedi, as she makes her own fun taunting motorists as they zip past her sleepy roadside home.
Four women of colour tell this story - the film’s three characters along with director Makgalemele - and the importance of that should not go unnoticed. The Town explores the Westernising influence on South African storytelling. By taking a common occurrence from her own youth and exploring it on screen, Makgalemele shares a story inspired by her home culture with a predominantly Western audience. In doing so, the film implores audiences to consider themes of colonization and the generational effect it has on communities as well as cultural identity. This film is beautifully constructed, with easily likable characters, but The Town’s true importance lies in its ability to encourage viewers to reflect on who tells whose stories and for whom: a prime example of why diverse representation is vital in cinema.”
— Vithiya Murugadas
Director’s Statement
Growing up between the large city of Johannesburg South Africa and the much smaller town-like capital of Botswana, Gaborone, I spent a great deal of time tracing through these various settings watching as siloed towns appeared and disappeared around me.
The more rural of these towns are often ignored, only acknowledged when community members pro- test by throwing rocks at cars passing through.
The story began as a meditation on this isolation and loneliness, through the lens of the children who sit on the edges of the roads watching cars pass through. I was interested in how the communities’ traumas and resentments embedded themselves in routine behaviours.
But the story grew to be a more intimate look at isolation through the eyes of a young girl waiting for something to happen, hoping for greater connection, and always drawing closer to the road and the possibility of movement.
I hope to capture this sense of tension, loneliness, and expectation as well as the moments of dream- like joy and beauty. The story in its specificity and intimacy seeks to counter the violence of the abstraction.
Filmmaker Bio
Lindiwe Makgalemele is a Botswana-born South African filmmaker. She is a graduate of Harvard University currently completing a master’s degree at the University of Oxford.
Her short film The Town has just begun its festival run.
Lindiwe is interested in stories that celebrate the small, intimate, and spectacular moments that make up people’s lives, particularly those of Black and African women.