DOCUMENTARIES > PREMIERES' 09 > THE SWENKAS
November
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THE SWENKAS
Director: Jeppe RØnde
Nationality: Netherlands (2004)
Duration: 72 minutes
Original version in English and Zulu subtitled in Catalan Director: Jeppe RØnde
Production: Anne Dienner
Writer: Jeppe Ronde y Kim Leona
Music: Povl Kristian
Sound: Rune Palving
Edition: Olivier Bugge Coutté
Camera: Lars Skree DFF, Sebastian Winterø DFF, Nic Hofmeyr
SYNOPSIS
The swenkas are a group of Zulu men in South Africa who participate in a beauty contest every Saturday night in a neglected basement called The Hall. They exchange their belongings to obtain priced formal dresses and try to impress to the judge with sensual postures and to elegant body movements. The swenkas, as they are called, it is an intimate net of men that value the respect, the clarity and the virtue above all the things.
The swenkas are the film’s direct entry to the darkest down-town of contemporary Johannesburg, one of the most violent cities on earth. But the swenkas are about to tell a totally different story from within that very place. A story of hope. Even though the swenkas openly are longing for the days of Apartheid, they haven’t given up hope for a better future.
THE DIRECTOR
Jeppe Ronde was born in 1973 and holds a BA degree in Film Science and Art History from The University of Copenhagen. Apart from directing and often filming his documentaries, he has also benefited from his professional career as a musician, and as a consequence has been able to compose the music to his films.
His first works were Dancing in the midst of war (2000) and Sound (2001), but his feature-lenght debut was in 2003 with Jerusalem my love, which has won several prizes.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
> Better Danish documentary feature film, Robert Festival, Denmark, 2005
> Better international director, Hot Docs, Canadà, 2005
> Special mention, Eurodok, Norway, 2005
