By Theresa Takafuma
Through the Night 2, a feature film written and directed by one of Masvingo’s youngest filmmakers, Sydney Taivavashe is promising to be another blast following the stable’s 2013 National Arts Merits Awards-nominated film.
Produced by Nelned Pictures in association with Asher Media, the film is sequel to the 2013 NAMA-nominated Through the Night.
The film was last Friday premiered at a packed Charles Austin Theatre, and among the guests was Masvingo Mayor Hubert Fidze.
In an interview, Taivavashe said despite the delays the crew encountered in finishing the film, it is better in every way compared to their previous offering.
“Through the Night 2 appears to be better in every way; the picture quality has improved, the acting in itself has improved as well due to the introduction of a very talented actor, Charles Munganasa, (whose) performance in the film kind of motivated the rest of the cast to up their game, ” Taivavashe said.
“It is a crime-gangster film, and it asks the question: How far would you go if your family is taken away from you? As for the storyline I am not clear which of the two (One and Two) is better because they are both brilliant. The viewers would have to be the judges of that,” he said.
The youthful filmmaker said the National Parks and Wildlife Management Department, which took six months to respond to their request of making the film promote the anti-poaching campaign, caused the delay in the completion of the film as he had to change the story completely.
“I would say lack of commitment from the National Parks caused the delay. The original theme was about promoting anti-poaching in Zimbabwe. They made us wait six months beating about the bush only to tell us it was impossible to work with them due to the sensitivity of the subject,” Taivavashe said.
“Our biggest challenge however was trying to make this film as professional as I could make it using a single camera, so most scenes were shot more than ten times to get all the angles and shots to make it appear as if we used many cameras,” Taivavashe said.
“The whole process was sometimes very frustrating and the other thing was keeping actors happy and motivated since this project has taken us nine months to finish,” he said.
