Presented at the Durban International Film Festival prior to the December release of the completed film, the first trailer has freshly arrived for Scottnes Smith's
Hear Me Move. Billed as the first ever dance film from South Africa the trailer appears to hold to the established format for the sub genre with the likeable underdog facing up against tough odds, but the use of regional dance styles should add a fresh feeling.
Hear Me Move features energetic "sbujwa" and "pantsula" dance sequences, choreographed by the award-winning Paul Modjadji, that play out against the backdrop of a gritty urban Johannesburg seldom seen on the silver screen. Smith says, "We opted to focus on sbujwa and pantsula, our home grown urban street dances, because we wanted South Africans to see themselves and be proud of their contemporary culture."
The film tells the story of Muzi (played by newcomer Nyaniso Dzedeze), a mild mannered accounting student at a Johannesburg college and the son of a legendary township pantsula dancer. When tragedy struck at a street dance and his father was murdered, young Muzi promised his mother to give up dancing. What Muzi doesn't know is that his father's death was not as everyone believed it to be. When his father's former dance partner, Shoes, approaches Muzi to join his crew, "Sbujwa Nation", Muzi has to choose between finding out the truth about his father's death or disappointing his mother. What he doesn't realize is that by joining "Sbujwa Nation", he will make himself mortal enemies with Prince, the former leader of "Sbujwa Nation" and head of rival dance crew "Ambi$hN".
The film features a host of well-loved South African actors such as S'thandiwe Kgoroge as Muzi's mother, Makhaola Ndebele as Shoes and Lillian Dube as Muzi's grandmother. Alfred Ntombela, Khanyi Mbau, Lorcia Cooper, Boity Thulo, Thembi Seete, Wandile Molebatsi, Amanda Du Pont and radio DJ Khutso Theledi also make cameo appearances.