Manenberg

Do you remember where you were on your 21st birthday? What was on your mind back then? Where were you headed? What was holding you back?MANENBERG is an intimate portrait of Fazline and Warren, two young ’Cape Coloureds’, coming-of-age in a worn-down and overpopulated ghetto-area constructed during the apartheid-regime to house coloured families with low incomes. Here, ’children have children’ and the chances of becoming a gangster are greater than the chances of creating something new in the ruins of the past - but Manenberg is also an area with strong ties between the inhabitants in the claustrophobic houses. The film raises familiar questions about poverty and power, through the voices and experiences of two young people born into an uncompromising world. One of the most piercing questions of the film is about the power of place in determining oneʼs future.MANENBERG is a film about hardship, hope and the human capacity for forgiveness. MANENBERG is the debut documentary film by directors and anthropologists Karen Waltorp & Christian Vium, who have lived and done extensive research in Manenberg between 2005Produced with support from Filmworkshop, The Danish Film Institute, DANIDA and Danish Film Directors.  The film follows Fazline and Warren over a period of two years in which they struggle to make sense in an environment full of challenges.