5 minutes with Joanne Joseph
October 21, 2021
There’s an app for that
October 21, 2021
Megan meets Uga
WeekendSpecial writer Megan Choritz interviews award-winning South African filmmaker Uga Carlini about her latest film, Angeliena – the story of a much-loved car guard who decides to follow her dream to travel after she is diagnosed with a fatal disease. Megan has a part in the movie, and Uga, who has worked in film in the UK, Australia and Fiji, is the founding member of Towerkop Creations, who specialise in female-driven heroine stories, including the highly praised film, Alison.
LOVE
MC: Angeliena is a film about love. There was so much love on set and around this production. Tell me about Angeliena and love.
UC: Angeliena is a love story. A self-love story. Self-love is the greatest middle finger to the rest of the world, and that is the internal story of the film. Self-love is Angeliena’s greatest challenge, and that is why she makes everything on the outside so beautiful, because she feels so ugly and worthless. And yet, when we look at her, all we see is love. Angeliena finally realises that she is good enough, and then nothing else matters.
MAGIC
MC: The second thing I want to ask you about is magic.
UC: Yes! Absolutely, because, always, my stylistic choice is magical realism. Magic is so important to me. We wake up every day and our heart just beats! Nobody knows how that happens.
It is magic. Do we get what magical beings we are? There is a tree that
can’t talk to you, but its leaves can make oxygen that our body needs. The interconnectedness of magic is also in the everyday. Magic is all around us and we need to be reminded of it especially now, because it is so dark out there.
LANGUAGE
MC: It feels like you have written characters through language. It feels like language is also magical in Angeliena.
UC: I think my theatre background has a lot to do with that. Theatre gives a different edge, and language is so important in theatre. Language matters. I am totally sentimental. Love letters, notebooks, my love language is language and detail. The characters have their own voices. What they say and how they say it is important. This film is my love poem to the South Africa I love. In South Africa we speak so differently, we have different accents. Language in South Africa is so important.
Visit www.weekendspecial.co.za for more arts and entertainment. Photography: supplied by Weekend Special
Visit www.weekendspecial.co.za for more arts and entertainment. Photography: supplied by Weekend Special
