How Akin Omotoso is busting the big myth of South African movies

Every movie that finds its way to the screen is in its own way a miracle, a fusion of creative and technical energies, logistics and planning, faith, hope, and lots and lots of money. But even when the lights finally dim and the credits start rolling, the battle to win hearts and minds has only just begun, all the more so for a South African filmmaker who must battle against the might of Hollywood to find an audience. Just ask Akin Omotoso. The celebrated actor, director, and producer has been turning his passion for motion pictures into miracles ever since his parents gave him a movie camera for his birthday. But the real epiphany came when the family moved from Nigeria to South Africa, shortly before the dawn of democracy, and the young Akin realised how many stories there were to be told, about life, love, and the turmoil and possibilities of change in his adoptive motherland. Schooled in drama and film at UCT, where he won an award for his prowess as an actor, Akin made his full-length directing debut with God is African, a wry look at student life on campus. Since then, he has made his name as a versatile, impassioned filmmaker, through films as varied in style and tone as the romantic comedy, Tell Me Sweet Something, and the fast-paced action drama, Vaya. Akin sat down with Ruda to chat about the drama of real life, the real life of drama, and his restless campaign to disprove the “self-perpetuating myth that South African films are not good”.