The Wound’s producers want to inspire ‘risk takers’ in film making through Oscar entry

The filmmakers behind the controversial local film, The Wound (Inxeba), which was recently announced as South Africa's 2018 Oscars entry, said they hope to motivate aspiring producers to take risks when telling South African stories.

The Wound was selected by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) as South Africa's pick to be submitted to the Academy Awards also known as The Oscars for 2018.

In a statement sent to TshisaLIVE, director John Trengove explained that the entry  would hopefully inspire filmmakers not to make "crowd-pleasing" films but to take risks.

"We never once thought we’d make a crowd-pleasing film, let alone one that would represent South Africa as an Oscar submission. I hope this encourages other local filmmakers to take bigger risks and to try to express something of our uniquely South African experience," he said.

The film will compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category after long discussions with the NFVF.

NFVF head of marketing and communications, Peter Kwele, congratulated the creators of the film.

"It is important for the content we produce to disrupt and propel audiences to introspect and the film’s focus on important aspects of our culture and traditions, while addressing topical issues of identity, masculinity and sexuality does just that. And I hope that we as South Africans will engage constructively around these issues,” he said.

The film tells a gay love story told entirely in isiXhosa, mainly set at an initiation school and stars artist Nakhane. The film has attracted both acclaim and criticism from viewers since its trailer was released.

Producers of the film, Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw, said they were glad the effort that went into making the film was bearing fruit.

"It’s a film that was five years in the making, from inception, and it is one that all South Africans can be proud of," said Cait Pansegrouw.

The other top local films that were screened for a week for Oscar submission purposes were Vaya and Five Fingers for Marseilles.

The Wound (Inxeba) will release nationwide in South Africa in February 2018.