Runaways

First premiered at the Africa Rising International Film Festival in Johannesburg late last year, Runaways is a short film directed by Lithemba Nziweni and produced by Mapule Mokete, starring Sipho Balakisi and Munsaka Juunza, shot in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape. Runaways is a story based on trust, inspired by the movie 12 Years a Slave based on the autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was sold into slavery. The two characters Sipho and Munsaka are slaves at a farm, Sipho is a live in helper at the farm who is unhappy about the kind of environment she lives in and Munsaka is the hard labourer who works on the fields, the two characters have never spoken to each other before but they seemingly have a connection as they always have a brief eye contact, by chance they meet in a passageway and briefly plan an escape, Sipho has a masterplan all figured out, she quickly briefs Munsaka about the details and they part ways before their masters could see them as they are not allowed to have conversations with each other. Will they their plan to escape workout? Will they finally be free?  Check out this 5 minute long short film on Lithemba Nziweni’s Instagram TV. Nziweni, who was one of the top 40 Design Indaba Emerging Creatives class of 2021 is a photographer and creative director of geminivision. The short film precedes and inspires his latest cinematic photoseries also titled Runaways.