Forbidden love wins the day in the upcoming film Free State. It scooped the best cinematography award at the Garden State Film Festival in New Jersey in the US.Written and directed by local filmmaker Sallas de Jager, the story unfolds in South Africa during the 1970s and tells the tale of the challenges an interracial couple faced during apartheid.South African-born and New York-based former model Nicola Breytenbach takes the lead role of Afrikaans student Jeanette, who falls in love with Ravi, who is played by former Mr South Africa Andrew Govender.The film is a collaboration between local production company Bosbok Ses Films, Utkarsh Entertainment and Indian production company Parnam Entertainment.De Jager also walked away with the best director award at the Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt last month.Co-producer Piet de Jager said the story wasn't foremost about apartheid."Primarily, it is a love story but the setting of apartheid was perfect for a forbidden love story as forbidden love was rife then."Today, interracial dating is not as taboo as it was during those days," he said.Last week, however, 7de Laan actress Mbali Mlotshwa, who plays Nandi - a woman who is in a relationship with Bernard - played by Werner Coetser - took to her Instagram to lament the reactions to her soapie character's relationship."Bernard and Nandi received some racist slurs from their on-screen debut this past week, (production expected it and so did I) but the crazy thing is racial slurs happened on set with people I thought were educated and open- minded," commented the actress on her Instagram page.Free State will be released nationally on April 27...