The Sunday News
Rebecca Nyathi Sunday Leisure Reporter
THE production of local movies is a good development that seems to point the country’s film industry in the right direction with a new movie Journey Home that was released last month promising to be better in terms of quality with its cast of veteran and new actors.
The movie which was shot at the end of last year features veteran actors and actresses, and up-and-coming vibrant actors and actresses that include Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda, Yengiwe Ngwenya and Sthandazile Dube.
The writer and director of the movie, Vincent Ngwenya (28) is no stranger in the arts industry since he released his first movie in 2012 titled Inhlanhla and has directed a few movies himself.
According to Ngwenya, Journey Home is a touching story of a girl who returns home from jail a changed person to discover that nothing has changed much at home. She strives to correct that which she can and accept that which she can’t.
“When writing this movie, I was determined to make it different from what I usually see. In most movies that have been released in this country, it’s usually men who create scandals and are jail birds. In this one it’s about a girl from prison who is determined to correct the wrongs she did in her life,” said Ngwenya.
Among the up-and-coming actresses, are 19-year-old Vanessa Ziyambi who plays the role of Libahle who was a school pupil dating old Jack in the movie, and Sthandazile Dube.
Ziyambi who acted in one of the movies directed by Ngwenya in 2012 titled Flower in the Wilderness said she hoped to grow as an artiste and upgrade her life since she was not fortunate enough to continue with her education after completing her Ordinary Level.
“The girl who played as Libahle on that movie is totally different from Vanessa. I am a reserved girl who knows better than wasting her life with old men. I haven’t been anywhere in life but I believe that whatever I want to achieve has to be through hard work,” she said.
The teenager who expressed her gratitude of being able to work with people like Yengiwe Ngwenya who had a lot to offer in terms of sharing their artistic knowledge hopes to be a professional actress.
Sthandazile Dube is no novice when it comes to acting. She is one of the multi-talented ladies who is an actress, poet, teacher and a mother of two who started her acting career in 2006 acting in a drama comedy King’s Kraal. She has also featured in The Gentleman, Suku, Mr Perfect, Inhlanhla and Choose Maz’khethela. Most of these movies were nominated for awards.
Dube who has been in the arts industry for 10 years has also done radio plays and added that she had many challenges though being a mother taught her how to multi-task hence making it easy for her to balance her work and life in the arts industry.
Dube hopes to continue in the arts industry but upgrade to be a director some day.
“I am a Ndebele fanatic, when I started as an artiste I was known as Stha the poet who was also an actress. What I want to achieve this year is to record a poetry album and I aspire to continue growing as an artiste,” she said.
