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Namibia: The Ties That Bind Us
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New Era (Windhoek)
30 April 2008
Posted to the web 30 April 2008
Catherine Sasman
Windhoek
The Ties That Bind, the first Namibian homegrown television series is currently being shot in Windhoek and New Era went behind the scenes.
In a warehouse behind the Parcel Force company in the northern industrial area of Windhoek, the Optimedia team - a local film and advertising company - is filming the first television drama series the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has embarked upon.
The team has been busy filming the first six episodes of the series The Ties That Bind, which according to director Abius Akwaake, is a homespun television story that captures life and living in today's Namibia.
The company has had to opt to film the first six episodes at night between 18h00 until 07h00 the next day in the affordable controlled environment around the set built off the main protagonist's house to minimise mostly sound disturbance from the busy area.
And yet, the filming has to be interrupted from time to time when loud sirens penetrate the warehouse, and then it is back to shooting scenes in numerous takes.
The drama focusses on Anna Shikongo, a woman who lives in Katutura, and works in one of the more affluent parts of the city as a domestic worker for a successful Afrikaner lawyer, Stefan du Plessis, played by Johan van der Linden.
Although Anna seemingly can leave her employment, she remains. There is an intricate - and secretive - link between her and her employer, Du Plessis.
The drama, says Akwaake, is platformed along the lines of different 'worlds' - 'worlds' that consist of different economic, cultural, political, and emotional realities - that form the basis on which dramatic elements and stories are introduced and performed.
One world is Anna's house, which she sustains and shares with her four children. Her husband died in the liberation war.
The second world is Anna's neighbour's house owned by her friend and turned into a shebeen.
Du Plessis' house forms the third world, in which his vain wife, Elke, whiles her days away.
The fourth world is the legal system, in which Anna becomes embroiled with a son in jail, and other convoluted interactions of the characters of the story takes place.
"The story is about Anna who struggles, as a single mother of four, to keep her family together. On the other hand, because she has been working for the rich family for 20 years, that family has become part of her as well; their struggles also become hers," Akwaake said.
"The family drama is not a gritty representation of life but rather a realistic portrayal of challenges with the added bonus of presenting alternative lifestyles that engender the kind of ideal society that we are all striving towards," Akwaake said.
The NBC and the Namibia Film Commission (NFC) embarked on the project as a first response to the dearth of local content on the national television screen.
The initial idea was to commission a local soap opera, but the corporation eventually opted to commission tenders for a drama series.
Three local production companies were short-listed, with a two-man evaluating panel - the Executive Producer of the South African popular soapie, Generations, Mfundi Vundla, and Charles Burnette, the American director who was involved in Where Others Wavered - making recommendations to the NBC and NFC for a final selection.
Optimedia, as the selected company, signed an agreement with the NBC and NFC in August last year, after which it embarked on a writers' workshop to develop the script for the series.
Auditions started in November last year.
The team of scriptwriters consists of the main writer, Femi Kayode from Nigeria, Louis Maruwasa, Nailoke Mhanda, Oshosheni Lomboleni Hiveluah, Dorinda Peters, and Girley Jazama.
The writers said the storylines that drive the story are characterised by tight, sharp dialogue in all Namibia's languages - with thoroughbred Namibian accents.
The series has a main story with conflicts resolved in one episode, but has sub-plots that carry to the following episode through a cliffhanger. The writers promised a moral lesson learnt, but never at the expense of good entertainment.
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Apart from the two main characters - Anna and Du Plessis - there are 30 speaking parts and 16 re-occurring characters in the 26-episode series.
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