South African horror, Siembamba, too disturbing for some major local cinema groups

The South African horror, Siembamba, by Oscar nominated Director, Darrell Roodt is too disturbing for some major cinema groups in South Africa. Roodt is the Director of popular films such as “Sarafina!” starring Whoopi Goldberg and got nominated for an Academy awrad for his film, “Yesterday”. Fans are commenting as to why the film will not be screened in their provinces. South African horror fans have never before seen a modern South African horror set on a true South African folklore. This is something new and exciting. One would think the film would receive more local support from distribution companies. Siembamba’s trailer on Facebook has gotten great feedback from South Africans and surprisingly enough it has drawn attention from what seems like a large Spanish community.

The film is set to release Friday the 13th of October 2017 only with Epic Cinemas at Mall at Reds in Centurion, Northridge Mall in Bloemfontein, Cine Centre in Midlands and Cine Centre Suncoast Casino. The original song is rather disturbing and is a distant reminder of the film “The Witch” that got a lot of attention in 2016, but is solely for the true horror fan. Here are the lyrics of Siembamba by South African poet, Louis Leipoldt:

Originally in Afrikaans:
“Siembamba mamma se kindjie,
Siembamba mamma se kindjie.
Draai sy nek om, gooi hom in die sloot,
Trap op sy kop, dan is hy dood”

In English:
“Siembamba mommy’s little child,
Siembamba mommy’s little child.
Ring his neck, throw him in a ditch,
Step on his head, then he is dead.”

Siembamba’s trailer is a mixture of disturbing and confusing images, which basically defines a psychological horror. From the trailer it can be seen that it is a bold horror film and something that South Africans haven’t done before.

Siembamba is about a teen girl, Chloe (Reine Swart), who is suffering from postpartum depression who returns home to her mother (Thandi Puren) with her newborn. Chloe’s psychiatrist is played by well-known actor, Brandon Auret, who is best known from Neil Blomkamp’s film, Chappie.

According to the dictionary horror is defined as “terror, fear, shock or disgust”, thus if that is what Darrell Roodt aimed for, then he nailed it as the film is clearly too shocking for some of our local cinema groups. Phoenix films is brave to dip their toes into the horror genre and hopefully we’ll see more bold horrors coming out of South Africa in the near future.

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