Voted as the best performing local film over the weekend, raking in almost R1m in its first three days at the local box office, Matwetwe, is taking the country by storm.
The movie was released in Johannesburg on Friday and is set to be released in other cities this week. But movie lovers in the Buffalo City Metro will miss out on seeing the movie, which was written and directed by comedian and actor Kagiso Lediga.
Movies @Hemingways manager Steven Pretorius said: “We are a private organisation and we unfortunately do not get all of the movies that other bigger cinemas like Nu Metro and Ster-Kinekor get, and Matwetwe is one of the movies we will not be getting.”
The movie is based on two teenage boys, Lefa (Sibusiso Khwinana) and Papi (Tebatso Mashishi), who are fresh out of high school and trying to find meaning in their lives.
Lefa is accepted at university to study botany, but cannot decide if he should go due to financial constraints.
He has developed a magical weed called “matwetwe”, which is Pretoria street lingo for “wizard”, and believes it will make him a fortune. Together with Papi, they sell the weed to raise funds for their studies.
Lediga said the movie was inspired by his own experiences of coming of age from having to meet the expectations of family and friends to his first discovery of weed as a first year in university.
“It was when I moved to Cape Town from Pretoria, my first year in university, that I discovered weed. I have always wanted to write about life after Grade 12 and the expectations from family and friends,” Lediga said about the movie he co-produced with internationally acclaimed DJ Black Coffee.
Mashishi describes his character as fun and witty.
“Papi is a notorious guy from the hood, he is street-smart and a hustler. He knows the streets of ekasi left, right and centre, he has his best friend Lefa who’s the smart one going to study botany at Wits,” he said.
Khwinana said landing a role as Lefa on Matwetwe has been the big break he has been waiting for.
He was previously a theatre actor.
“I encourage people to go watch this movie. It’s a South African story – our story told by us, and it’s not diluted, no one came from afar and added their ideologies,” he said...