16 May 2022

The European Film Festival, which reached the shores of Maun for the first time on Friday, attracted a good number of movie lovers to Botswana Open University theatre.  

The film festival kick-started with a film titled Romy’s Salon. It tells the story of an adolescent girl named Romy who has to briefly stay at her grandmother’s salon every day after school. 

The movie location is Germany where Romy’s relationship with her grandmother Stine takes off on a rough patch as young Romy is bored by her hairdresser grandmother.

Despite their differences, the foes bond over hairdressing as Stine mentors Romy on the operations of the salon.

Just as the two become best friends, Young Romy discovers her beloved grandma suffers a memory loss which leaves her distraught in realising that in no time grandma won’t remember her.

However the movie wraps with Romy and Stine successfully tracing Stine’s steps back to Denmark to relive her best memories where she fell in love.

The festival continued on Saturday, featuring Botswana’s produced short films Kanswazi directed by Takobana Mbise, a story about a young boy who relocates from the city to Nswazwi where he learns to adapt to the new environment.

Another home produced film was Dithunya tsa rona directed by Jenny Ledikwe and Isaac Marumo telling a story about a social worker investigating teen pregnancies in rural African villages.

Delivering a speech to mark the official opening of the film festival in Maun, the Delegation of the European Union to Botswana and SADC deputy ambassador Silvia Bopp-Hamrouni stated that the large attendance encouraged them to expand the festival in Maun.

She said the European Film Festival was in its fourth edition in Gaborone in collaboration with Alliance Française adding that they would like to make it an  annual event in Maun.

Ambassador Bopp-Hamrouni said this year’s they chose to focus on family because the pandemic had a huge impact on families all over the world.

“Many families lost loved ones who died of COVID while others need to care for family members who struggle with long-term consequences of the disease.’’

She further highlighted that families had to carry extra burdens because of home office and home schooling, which she said led to burn-outs and mental health issues caused by extended lock-downs.

The deputy ambassador said domestic and gender-based violence increased due to COVID-19 since people were compelled to stay home while others lost source of income causing frustrations.

However, she said despite all these negative impacts, the pandemic also brought families closer together because it showed how fragile life was and how important family was.

Bopp-Hamrouni said the films depicted the struggles families were confronted with and reflected the need to accept and support each other with all differences across generations.

Furthermore she said the European Film Festival aimed at showcasing the diversity of the film production of the European Union family and its diversity.

“Europe’s contemporary creativity, its diversity of cultural expressions and multifaceted artistic vision are reflected in our selection of films that ranges from drama and comedy to animation for children.’’

The Maun edition was organised by the European Union delegation to Botswana, SADC in collaboration with the Alliance Francaise de Gaborone and Poetavango. BOPA