Encounters to open with “Milisuthando”

Celebrating its 25th year as Africa’s leading international documentary festival, proudly showcasing the boldest, brightest and most compelling nonfiction films from South Africa, Africa and the world, there could be no more fitting Encounters Film Festival opening night offering than rising talent, Milisuthando Bongela, with her new film, “Milisuthando”. 

Fresh from its world premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, the film looks both backwards and forwards, digging deep into the legacy of apartheid and meditating on the future of South Africa, through its unflinching willingness to examine both the current state of the country and of the filmmaker’s own complex identity.

“Premiering this film at home after so many years of brewing and cooking, my only hope is that it will add to the canon of a cinema that softens our understanding of the hardest parts of who we are as a people. And it is with love, as much love as we could muster, that my team and I share this story with South Africans,” says Bongela.

Read more about the film and visit the Encounters website for details on the festival, which runs from 22 June to 2 July 2023.