Sweetheart
A Be Phat Motel short film
Follow Sweetheart on the Website or the Facebook Fan Page
Sweetheart
Starring: Inge Beckmann * Anthony Oseyemi * Andre Weideman
With: Norman Murray * Pope Jerrod * Aidan Whytock * Robin Taylor * Nicki Taylor
Synopsis
The late 1950s, and the height of Cold War tension: When her husband and stepsons don’t return from a typical trip into town, a young housewife finds herself alone in their remote farmhouse. She loses herself to routine, waiting for their return, but as time passes it becomes clear that they aren’t coming back, and she must force herself out of an aimless cycle, setting off to find them.
What she finds instead is nothing less than a seemingly derelict world empty of all but a few dazed ‘survivors’. Unsure who, if anyone, to trust, she must navigate a series of strange encounters to find shocking answers in a world that – with an undercurrent of future science beneath its surface – will reveal itself to be a marked alternative to the world we remember.
Status: Complete
Project Notes
High concept and retro- styled, Sweetheart is at the same time a human drama, a love-story-in-waiting and ultimately a thrilling mind-bender. Finished in black and white, it’s an homage to films of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the shadow of the Cold War and giant technological leaps of the era led to both feel-good and bleak imaginings of an unpredictable future.
Shot on the Red One in and around Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2010, the film sees Be Phat Motel in creative collaboration with top South African performers and artisans, all of whom committed themselves wholeheartedly to a whirlwind shoot of inspiration and excitement, all very excited to join us in pushing our skills in technical craft, imagination and storytelling.
Thanks to all our tireless cast and crew, not to mention our friends and sponsors, old and new, at The Public Pool, Media Film Service, Props to the Stars, Annies Wardrobe, Waterfront Studios, Propfather, Zootee Productions, and more.
I'll take care of you.
Sweetheart is released onto the international festival circuit in late 2010. For more information please contact production@bephatmotel.com. To follow the film’s process check out the Website or the Facebook Fan Page
Photography by Richard Keppel Smith.
