Screening note: This digital screening is available to view between 12:01am PT on Friday, October 9, and 11:59pm PT on Sunday, October 18.
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In a hamlet in the mountains of Lesotho, an 80-year-old widow prepares herself for the final act of her life: her own ritual burial. Grieving the loss of her beloved son, octogenarian Mantoa (brilliantly portrayed by veteran South African film and television actor Mary Twala Mlongo) is shaken from her despair by the discovery that her homeland is earmarked for displacement and will soon be flooded, along with its graveyard, for a new reservoir. The threat of ancestral eradication and forced relocation inspires in Mantoa a new will to live, and she in turn ignites the collective spirit of defiance in her community. Framed as a parable and based on a true story, the film combines documentary detail with magical realism and a strikingly unique color palette. With her beautifully expressive face and an extraordinary economy of gesture, Mlongo is a formidable screen presence. Artist-filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese received a Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.