Cocoon of Pain
Cocoon of Pain
Directed by
Country: South Africa
Duration: 46 minutes
SYNOPSIS
Topsy Madaka was a political activist from Port Elizabeth who was killed in April 1982 by one of the apartheid security police’s most notorious killers, Gideon Nieuwoudt.
He was kidnapped, drugged and executed with a single shot to the head before his body was burnt. It was only in 1997 during the TRC Amnesty application of the security police responsible for his death that it was finally revealed what had happened to him and where his bones were buried over 300km from Port Elizabeth.
We will see through the eyes of his son Amandla whether he can reconcile the trauma of his father’s death as he goes in search for answers as to why he was killed? As past and present merge Amandla expresses how he shielded himself in a Cocoon of Pain to deal with the trauma of his father’s death.
Topsy’s role in the liberation struggle will be highlighted and more importantly those who were left
of trans-generational trauma, justice and reconciliation and the process of healing.
A chance meeting with the son of his father’s killer makes for compelling watching.
Directors’ Bio
Enver Samuel
Enver Samuel is an award winning documentary filmmaker who has over the past 8 years concentrated on telling the stories of political activists during apartheid, making social impact justice documentaries like Indians Can’t Fly, a documentary on activist Ahmed Timol and the follow up documentary, Someone To Blame. Murder in Paris has been completed to critical acclaim which aims to play a part in the re-opening of the case into her assassination. The documentary won the Durban International Film Festival Best Documentary Award and at the same festival Enver was awarded the inaugural Human Rights Award. It has been selected at more than 50 film festivals winning 15 awards. Amongst many other high profile events Murder in Paris was invited to screen at the prestigious Bertha DocHouse in London. Enver has demonstrated that one can make documentaries on a relatively low funding business model with appropriate buy in from funding agencies.
https://emsproductions.co.za/
https://murderinparis.com
Director Statement
The victims of the massacres and deportations of April 1989 are today in the thousands: bruised, ruined, and neglected. They live in acute suffering, in silence – their tragic history remains taboo.
I create an temporary place where all the stories of the victims can be told and heard, a complex and subtle meeting space where the different actors in this conflict can reconstruct the story of this tragedy together, to heal wounds and prepare for the future.
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