Marigolds in August | |
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Directed by | Ross Devenish |
Written by | Athol Fugard |
Produced by | Mark Forstater |
Starring | Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona, John Kani,Joyce Hesha, Nomonde Mhlobiso, Mabel Ntshinga |
Cinematography | Michael J. Davis |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | South Africa |
Language | English |
Marigolds in August is a 1980 South African drama film directed by Ross Devenish, based on the play of the same name by Athol Fugard. It was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Berlin Bear Anniversary Prize. [1]
An examination of the 'invisibility' of blacks in South Africa caused by conditioned white indifference during Apartheid. The film is set in and around Schoenmakerskop, an opulent whites-only seaside hamlet just outside Port Elizabeth, scriptwriter Athol Fugard's home town. [2] It is an area of high Black unemployment, with as many as one in five workers jobless. As a result, malnutrition and infant mortality are rampant. Daan, a poor but employed black man, is on his way to work one morning when he sees Melton, a jobless black man. Melton and his wife have just buried one of their children. Suspicions and mistrust between the two men crop up because Daan's papers are not in order and he fears that Melton might exploit that to take his job. A third man, Paulus, appears and becomes an unwilling mediator between Daan and Melton. The moral dilemma the film presents is acted out with tremendous power and a mixture of anguish and occasional humour. [3]
"Master Harold"...and the boys is a play by Athol Fugard. Set in 1950, it was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in March 1982 and made its premiere on Broadway on 4 May at the Lyceum Theatre, where it ran for 344 performances. The play takes place in South Africa during apartheid era, and depicts how institutionalized racism, bigotry or hatred can become absorbed by those who live under it. It is said to be a semi-autobiographical play, as Athol Fugard's birth name was Harold and his boyhood was very similar to Hally's, including his father being disabled, and his mother running a tea shop to support the family. His relationship with his family's servants was similar to Hally's as he sometimes considered them his friends, but other times treated them like subservient help, insisting that he be called "Master Harold", and once spitting in the face of one he had been close to. Additionally the play was remade for a suitable audience in 2005.
Zakes Makgona Mokae was a South African stage and screen actor. He was well-known for his work with playwright Athol Fugard, notably in The Blood Knot and "Master Harold"...and the Boys, the latter earning him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Athol Fugard OIS HonFRSL is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. Some of these have also been adapted for film.
Winston Ntshona was a South African playwright and actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975.
Bonisile John Kani,, is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in The Lion King (2019) and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix films Murder Mystery (2019) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023).
Sheila Meiring Fugard is a writer of short stories and plays and the ex-wife of South African playwright Athol Fugard.
Lisa Fugard is a South African writer and actor. She was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the only child of playwright Athol Fugard and novelist Sheila Meiring Fugard.
Sohrab Shaheed Salles or Sohrab Shahid-Saless was an Iranian film director and screenwriter and one of the most celebrated figures in Iranian cinema in the 20th century. After 1976 he worked in the cinema of Germany and was an important component of the film diaspora working in the German industry.
Blood Knot is an early play by South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard. Its single-performance premier was in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the playwright and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah.
South African literature is the literature of South Africa, which has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, Swazi, Tsonga and Ndebele.
There is a wide range of ways in which people have represented apartheid in popular culture. During (1948–1994) and following the apartheid era in South Africa, apartheid has been referenced in many books, films, and other forms of art and literature.
Boesman and Lena is a small-cast play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, set in the Swartkops mudflats outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. It features a "Coloured" man and woman walking from one shanty town to another, and explores the effect of apartheid on a few individuals.
The Road to Mecca is a play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. It was inspired by the story of Helen Martins, who lived in Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa and created The Owl House, which is now a National heritage site.
Marigolds in August is a play by South Africa's Athol Fugard.
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Master Harold...and the Boys is a 2010 drama film which is based on the original theatre play of the same name by Athol Fugard, directed by director Lonny Price. The cast includes Freddie Highmore and Ving Rhames.
Adriaan Donker was a pioneering South African publisher.
The 30th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 18–29 February 1980. The Golden Bear was jointly awarded to Heartland, directed by Richard Pearce, and Palermo or Wolfsburg, directed by Werner Schroeter.
Ross Devenish is a South African film director. His film Marigolds in August (1980) was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Berlin Bear Anniversary Prize. His feature film The Guest (1977) won a Bronze Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival.
A Lesson from Aloes is a 1978 play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. It is the story of Piet Bezuidenhout, a red-faced, big-hearted Afrikaner, who is suspected of being an informer; Gladys, his fragile embittered wife, whose tenuous hold on sanity has been broken by a routine police raid during which her diaries were ransacked; and Steve Daniels, a Colored activist just out of jail and about to leave South Africa for England on an Exit visa.