The sixth best-reviewed film of 2021 globally was made in Lesotho
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection ended 2021 at #6 on MetaCritic’s list of the best reviewed films of the year globally. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s film also cracked many of the most prestigious Top 10 Films of 2021 lists, placing second on Vulture, third on Slant, fourth on LA Weekly, sixth on RogerEbert.com, seventh on AV Club, and ninth on Paste and The Playlist – not to mention making Vanity Fair’s list of the 21 Most Underrated Movies of 2021 and The Film Stage’s list of The Best Cinematography of 2021.
Now streaming on Showmax, This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection stars the late, great Mary Twala Mhlongo (Black Is King) in her final film role as an 80-year-old widow in Lesotho who finds a new will to live and ignites a collective spirit of defiance within her community when her village is threatened with forced removals due to the construction of a reservoir. Triple SAFTA winner Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha (Tsotsi, Five Fingers For Marseilles) narrates, while Makhaola Ndebele (The River) co-stars.
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection has won over 33 international awards, including the Visionary Filmmaking Prize at Sundance 2020, the FIPRESCI Critics’ Prize at Hong Kong 2020, the Artistic Bravery Prize at Durban 2020, Best Cinematography at the African Movie Academy Awards 2020 and FESPACO 2021 for Pierre de Villiers, and the Silver Tanit for Best Film at Carthage 2021.
Released in the United States last year as part of The Criterion Collection, This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Vulture hailed it as “the first masterpiece of 2021… So gorgeous and spellbinding that it invites repeat viewings.” The Playlist called it one of those films that “reinvigorates one’s faith in the artistic capacity of an entire medium.” RogerEbert.com praised it as “a challenge to conventional Western film language… a welcome and necessary one.” Slant called it “Breathtaking,” Paste “extraordinary” and Rolling Stone “a revelation.” We could keep quoting but you get the idea…
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection is an intensely personal story for its writer-director, who was born and raised in Lesotho but now lives in Berlin
“When I was a child, my family was evicted from our home, My experience of displacement has significantly impacted who I am and how I see the world. I felt as though something had been taken away from me. My heart never left that place.”
Says Lemohang.
Produced by Urucu’s Cait Pansegrouw and Elias Ribeiro, who were also behind the Oscar-shortlisted Inxeba | The Wound, This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection was developed through the Realness African Screenwriter’s Residency, which the duo also co-founded.