by Marianne Gray
Of Good Report, one of three South African films in competition at the London International Film Festival, came to town with a buzz long before it was screened to festival audiences.
A tough film about an obsessive paedophile school teacher, it had been banned on the night of its opening screening at the Durban International Film Festival this year. And having seen it, one can see why those censors were perplexed and panicked.
As the first mainstream film banned in the new South Africa, this ruling triggered unprecedented international media coverage of a South African film and, following an outcry of industry professionals, and an urgent appeal by both the festival organizers and the film's producers, the independent Appeals Tribunal overturned the ruling and classified the film with a 16 year age restriction.
While the Board asserted that the ruling had nothing to do with the artistic merit of the picture, it was argued that the Classification Committee (who discontinued their viewing and made an outright decision just 28 minutes into the film) had not viewed the picture in the context of the narrative.
Of Good Report is a hard-hitting Xhosa urban psycho/romantic drama that is exciting, disturbing and fascinatingly revealing. Shot in black and white in Somerset East in the Eastern Cape and crisply directed by Jahmil XT Qubeka (Small Town Called Descent), Mothusi Magano (Tsotsi) plays a newly recruited high school teacher seemingly of good report'.
It has been almost a year since Parker Sithole, a victim of (undiagnosed) post-war stress pathology, made the long arduous journey to a sleepy rural town to take up his new position as a substitute teacher. He is welcomed into the teaching community for he is an educator who comes of good report' but is a marked social misfit.
He meets the sexually charged Nolitha (played by Petronella Tshuma) at a local bar and after a brief illicit sexual encounter, finds out that she is an under-age pupil in his class. Obsession, shameful lust and murder follow.
I spoke to Ciskei-bred Qubeka, in London for the festival, about his ballsy film. It is a South African homage to film noir' that tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf's perspective, an unapologetic Qubeka, 34, explains. It is a psycho thriller.
A lot of relevant social issues come into play in the story. I try not to preach because entertainment is the central driving force of a genre film like this but gender-based violence in South Africa is at a very high rate. It wanted to tell it like it is. There is a lot of misogynist recklessness in the film and I felt I had a bit of insight into how the man's mind worked, says Qubeka, who works in modern commercial making when not on a feature film project. I grew up in a patriarchal home. People around me did that sort of thing and it was always the other person's fault. In this case teachers are supposed to be custodians of society.
As a kid I was raised on American cinema and my influences are directors like Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and John McNaughton who made Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, Sam Peckinpah. I shot it in black and white as an homage to the old classics.
Shooting in black and white enabled us to create this realistic story in this real world, but with all the heightened drama and stakes that are brought to the fore by eschewing colour. By reducing everything to black, white, and grey we were able to peel back the veneer of the character and plunge into Parker's subconscious.
In a very real way we also make unconscious associations with films such as Psycho and other black and white classics. Just as Mothusi Magano's performance is so much more powerful because we never see him speak, the black and white imagery is so much more powerful because we never see any colour.
The film is eerily enhanced by the soundtrack, which is not an original score but an intense music score made from composer Philip Miller's musical library in collaboration with the artist William Kentridge.
*Of Good Report is screened at LFF on Mon 14 November at 20.45 at Vue 5 West End and Tues 15 Nov at 18.15 at Ritzy, Brixton.
Booking online : www.bfi.org.uk/lff
tel 020 7928 3232.
It also opens the Film Africa Festival at the Hackney Picturehouse in London on 1 November.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
by Marianne Gray
