2024

SA

film

official programme
opening session

25.06 — 19h15
→ batalha - room 1
[103 min]

Q&A with miki redelinghuys and pearlie joubert
moderated by paulo moreira

"Mother City" is a deeply human, often heart-breaking and at times humorous look at the global politics of urbanism. Filmed in Cape Town over 6 years, the story starts in 2016 when the government decided to sell a school, earmarked for affordable housing, to a private developer. As an act of resistance, housing activists from Reclaim the City (RTC) occupy two government buildings on prime city land. A narrative documentary, "Mother City" is nail-biting cinema as activists take on property power in a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid. RTC organiser and activist Nkosikhona Swartbooi tells this story with ruthless honesty as they wage a defiant war against government officials and property developers in one of the world’s most unequal cities. The film exposes the deep fault lines still in existence after 30 years of democracy because the South African government has not offered solutions to the most urgent and explosive issue of land and ownership, endearing generations of working-class people homeless.

language: afrikaans, english, xhosa
subtitles: english