''Cold Harbour'' is a 2013 South African

crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by Carey McKenzie. It follows the story of a Cape Town policeman investigating a murder that he suspects might be gang-related.

Cast

* Tony Kgoroge as Sizwe Mia *

Fana Mokoena Fana Mokoena (born 13 May 1971) is a South African actor and political activist, he served as a Member of Parliament, first as a delegate to the National Council of Provinces representing his home province Free State (province), Free State from ...

as Specialist *

Deon Lotz Deon Lotz (born 20 July 1964)"Deon Lotz"
''TVSA: The South African TV Authority.'' Retrieved 2 ...

as Col. Venske * Nan Yu as Soong Mei *Thomas Gumede as Legama *Zolani Mahola as Camilla *Quanita Adams as Fisherwoman *Nicole Bessick as Chantel Venske *Quentin Chong as Terry Tam *Winston Chong as Yee Toi *Kenneth Fok as Hoi Seewan *Oscar Petersen as Fidel *Gamiet Pietersen as Ou Boet

Development and production

Development for the film began before 2007, but was put on hold due to a lack of financing during the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. During development of the film, McKenzie and cinematographer Shane Daly decided that the visual look of the film should be desaturated, shot on anamorphic lenses, and moving the camera "as much as possible". Most of the film was shot

handheld A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. Mod ...

, with the exception of some

Steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. The Steadicam brand was acquired by Tiffen in 2000. It was designed to isolate the ...

shots. Tony Kgoroge did all his own stunts in the film.

Release and reception

''Cold Harbour'' premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival on 12 October 2013, and later showed at the

Durban International Film Festival The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It was founded in 1979 by Teddy Sarkin and Ros Sarkin. Presented by Centre for Creative Arts at the Univ ...

on 19 July 2014. The film also won the film festival's Best Actor award for Tony Kgoroge's performance. It was released nation-wide in South Africa on 25 July 2014. Writing for Screen Anarchy, Stuart Muller described the film as "a bold, starkly beautiful, and thought-provoking film with plenty to savour". Alex Isaacs of Channel24 wrote, "There are lots of things that could have been better about this thriller, but overall I think it’s one of the best South African movies that I have seen in a while because it doesn’t spoon-feed the audience and ask it to choose between who is right and who is wrong." The film was nominated for two awards at the 2015 Africa Movie Academy Awards: Best Actor in a leading role and Best First Feature Film by a Director.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt2396369 2013 crime thriller films 2013 films Afrikaans-language films English-language South African films Films set in Cape Town South African crime thriller films Xhosa-language films 2010s English-language films 2013 multilingual films South African multilingual films English-language crime thriller films 2010s South African films