Director and screenwriter Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese elevates his Lesotho narrative film drama by examining prevalent social issues, especially the competing connotations of progress. In the Sesotho language, the word for “progress” is “tsoelopele.” As the village chief notes in one scene of This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, speaking the word causes the tongue to roll backward. Mosese composes this picture around the contradictions within the concept of “tsoelopele”: what supposed progress means for proponents of it, for the legacy of a woman, and for the fate of a Lesotho village.
The protagonist is 80-year-old Mantoa (the late South African actress Mary Twala Mhlongo). She lives in Nasaretha, a village within the kingdom of Lesotho that was renamed and colonized by European Christian missionaries. Having already lost all her other family members, the widow awaits her son’s return from his work at the South African mines. When Mantoa discovers her son to have perished in the mines, she immerses herself in her sorrow, only able to think of one thing: preparing herself to die so she can be buried with the rest of her family.
When government officials threaten to push Mantoa’s people out of the area in order to flood it and build a dam, Mantoa will stop at nothing to prevent this injustice. Stirring up others in her village, she puts up a fight to be with her family again. The film becomes a slow unfolding of Mantoa’s grief, which frames her stalwart campaign for preservational justice.
It is laborious but rewarding work to engage with Mosese’s social drama. It creeps and meanders, drawing out beautiful scenes until the audience tires of them. The film’s visually and aurally poetic style, however, unites with an artistic vision to leave viewers with a powerful impression. What the government seeks is not progress; it's regression. What Mantoa strives for is not simply death; it’s new life.
Mosese flips the script on current discussions of progression versus traditionalism. As the film’s title would suggest, through a burial comes resurrection, and not in the way Christian colonialists foresaw for the Lesotho village.
This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is not for everyone, but it remains a thought-provoking piece of arthouse cinema. Mary Twala Mhlongo gives an affecting final performance in this enlightening narrative film, recommended for anyone with an interest in African cinema.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
We recommended this title for Narrative Film, Drama, and World Cinema shelves.
What academic library shelves would this title be on?
This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection would be an excellent purchase for shelves on African studies, Religion/Spirituality, Social Issues, and Political Issues.
Does this film have Public Performance Rights available?
This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection has DVDs with public performance rights available for both universities ($295) and public libraries ($125).