Educational Media Reviews Online

This Is Not A Burial: It’s A Resurrection is a magnificent and moving Mosotho drama film. This majestic two-hour film depicts Mary Twala Mhiongo, the well-known and highly respected African actress who died in 2020 shortly after the distribution of this film, brilliantly and believably playing Mantoa, a widow approaching the end of her life in Lesotho. At the film’s core is the tension between progress and development versus traditional values and ancestral respect. Although the presentation of this conflict breaks no new ground, its presentation through the eyes of Mantoa makes a compelling and impactful impression on the viewer. As a widow who has lost everything, the only things left to her as she nears the end of her own life are memories and a mission to protect the final resting place of many of her ancestors and what will soon be her final resting place. Development and progress demand the relocation or flooding of the burial place of the ancestors to make way for the floodplain of a new dam. The dam is needed to generate electric power for the developing Lesotho, which desperately needs the development to increase the standard of living for its people, but at the cost of the loss of ancestral peace and meaning. At first, the only voice raised protesting the flooding is the tremulous, obviously aged, and almost unheard voice of Mantoa. Soon other voices join hers, initially along traditional legal channels and when this is unsuccessful in more non-traditional but highly effective ways. The film does not definitively answer which voices win, but the trajectory does not bode well for the long-term success of the traditional ways in this confrontation.

Action and cinematography tell this story. Dialog is in Sotho with English subtitles. The subtitles are almost superfluous, as the story is skillfully told as a visual spectacular with moods built into the cinematography and nuanced by powerful acting. A narrator presented as a Lesotho elder provides context and a hauntingly beautiful tone with a lesiba he almost compels to speak whatever language the viewer is familiar with. The timing of the whole film is slow and brings to life the traditional ways that Mantoa is desperately trying to preserve. Lesotho life is portrayed as a norm. Although no commentary explains and discusses Lesotho ways, the culture quickly immerses the viewer. The poignancy of the obviously aged Mary Twala Mhiongo, and her death after the film is released, cannot be missed and lends an unmatched authenticity to this film.

Based on the above, This Is Not A Burial: It’s A Resurrection is rated highly recommended. Astute high schoolers and general audiences should find this film engaging, thought-provoking, enriching, and enjoyable. Academic audiences in the fields of aging, traditional culture, African Studies, Indigenous Cultures, film, and theater will find This Is Not A Burial: It’s A Resurrection indispensable. All academic and most public libraries need to seriously consider acquiring a copy of this valuable, artistically exemplary, and moving film.

Awards:
2020 Sundance Winner: World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking; 2019 Venice Film Festival, MUBI selection; 2020 Africa Movie Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Director; Lesotho's entry for Best International Feature Film to the 93rd Academy Awards

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