Movie-Database: Movies

THE SHORE BREAK

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Credits

Name: THE SHORE BREAK

Country: Südafrika

Year of publication: 2014

Format: DCP

Color: color

Language : OF m. dt. UT

Duration: 90 Minuten

Direction: Grunenwald, Ryley

Actor: Mbuthuma, Nonhle

Guest: Mbuthuma, Nonhle

Abstract

The South African region of Amadiba features breathtaking coastal scenery and runs alongside the Indian Ocean. The Pondo people have preserved their traditional way of life there for centuries. Nonhle Mbuthuma is one of the Pondos. She offers eco tours and is fighting against a mining project that threatens to destroy the nature that the livelihoods and culture of the Pondo people are dependent on. For this she receives death threats.

Her cousin Madiba, on the other hand, is a businessman and self-proclaimed moderniser who supports both the plans of an Australian corporation to open a titanium mine in the coastal region and the ANC government’s plans to construct a motorway there.

The film illustrates who profits from land grabbing and who has to bear the consequences. It was well-received in the South African press and they praised not only the wonderful shots of the scenery, the sumptuous soundtrack and the masterful narration in this masterpiece of a documentary, but they also remarked that: “It’s a story that is being enacted in every corner of the globe, and there’s something heartening about the fact that Nonhle’s fellow villagers aren’t so unsophisticated that they don’t grasp how little long-term benefit they’re likely to get in sacrificing their way of life for short-term cash.”