‘Fiela se Kind’ to be screened in Namibia

‘Fiela se Kind’, the film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Dalene Matthee, will be screened for the first time in Namibia on Friday, 6 September.

Actress Zenobia Kloppers, who hails from the capital’s Khomasdal area and plays the leading role, will fly to Windhoek to attend the premiere and meet local film lovers.

The film will thereafter be screened from 13 September.

The novel was released in 1985 and is set in southern Africa in the 1880s. It tells the story of Fiela Komoetie, a hardworking coloured woman living in the arid Karoo, who takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own. Nine years later, Benjamin is removed from her care and forced to live in the Knysna forest with a family of woodcutters who claim he is theirs.

Separated by law and geography, Fiela and Benjamin spend the next decade trying to find each other while simultaneously coming to terms with their individual identities.

Written and directed by Brett Michael Innes, the movie was shot on location in the Knysna forest and the Karoo with cinematography by Tom Marais.

“The story of Fiela is both heartbreaking and profound,” says producer Danie Bester. “The novel carries a special place in the hearts of many South Africans and Namibians and, even though it was written in 1985, we believe that it has themes that still speak to us today.”

The novel was previously adapted into a film in 1988 by director Katinka Heyns and starred Shaleen Surtie-Richards in a performance that was as iconic as the character who inspired it.

“There will naturally be comparisons to the first adaptation,” says Innes, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. “We know that we cannot replace it and we’re not trying to. Classic literature has a way of inspiring different artists to tell it in different ways and we believe that ‘Fiela se Kind’ falls into this category. It is truly a timeless story.”

“It is a great honour to play this character on screen,” says Kloppers, who played the role in the 2007 stage production. “Fiela has a way of melting even the hardest of hearts and her journey is one that reminds us all to be better people.”

The premiere will take place at the Grove Mall Ster Kinekor at 19h00 for 20h00.

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