The
story of a down-and-out boxer from Mdantsane is South Africa’s official
submission for the 2019 Oscars.
The gritty crime-drama film tells the
story of an aging, womanising, professional boxer from the Eastern Cape and his
career-criminal brother who take one last shot at success and get more than
they've bargained for.
The news of the film’s selection comes
shortly after its world premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema programme at
the prestigious Toronto International film Festival (TIFF) on Saturday, 7
September, where it screened to much international acclaim. No stranger to
TIFF, Qubeka’s ‘Sew the Winter to My Skin’ played in Toronto last year, and ‘Of
Good Report’ screened in 2013.
The film was the opener of the 40th
Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in July and received a standing
ovation from the audience at the end. Bongile Mantsai won best actor at DIFF
for his role as the boxer. ‘Knuckle City’ also stars Thembekile Komani, Siv
Ngesi, Faniswa Yisa, Awethu Hleli, Nomhle Nkonyeni, Zolisa Xaluva, Owen Sejake
and Angela Sithole.
The first public screening of the film
was hosted at @Movies Hemingways in East London on 20 August, where it was
packed to the rafters, as part of the producers’ commitment to ‘take the film
to the people that it’s all about’.
Set in the rural Eastern Cape town of
Mdantsane, known as the boxing mecca of Mzansi, Qubeka’s film follows the
anarchical descent of the two brothers into a hellish life as they are driven
to the brink by an all-too-familiar toxic masculinity that breaks them down.
The sleepy township of Mdantsane is vast
and poor, and yet it has produced some of the country’s – and the world’s –
greatest boxing champions. For young men and, increasingly, young women, boxing
is the only way out of poverty.
“What struck me most about this
township, which is where I grew up, is that it has produced 17 boxing world
champions since 1994 – both men and women in different divisions,” said Qubeka
in Toronto at the Q&A following a screening on 7 September. “The kids grow
up seeing these champs driving around town in their fancy cars. But many also
fall from grace and land up right back where they came from. I wanted to
explore why and how this happens.”
Qubeka points to boxing champion
Manelisi “Leli” Mbilase, who in 2018 was stoned to death by mostly female
community members in Mdantsane after he was allegedly caught robbing two women
of their belongings. The former SA featherweight title holder quit boxing in
2009 and became involved in crime with a group of gangsters who terrorised the
community. It was reported that he had succumbed to a life of drugs and would
do anything to get a fix.
“Boxers are left to fend for themselves
after their fighting days are over and many become misfits,” says Qubeka. They
often live with pain and so became addicts, and a burden to society. Given that
boxing is a sport that requires extreme discipline, I wanted to delve into the
reasons why so many of these talented fighters become a mess, wreaking havoc at
home and destroying their families in the process.”
“We are exceptionally proud of this
achievement,” says well-known producer Layla Swart, who co-owns production
company Yellowbone Entertainment with Qubeka. “It’s a harrowing tale of a man
lost, who tries to look after his family even as he is trapped in the seedy
world of underground boxing. The film packs an emotional punch as hefty as any
of the gruesome on-screen ones as it explores greedy commercial exploitation,
poverty, violence, race, and what it means to be a man.”
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