Anyone familiar with the local movie scene might have heard whispers of Jenna Bass’s new feature film.

Bass is already an accomplished director, winning awards for her first feature film Love the One You Love, and now her new offering, High Fantasy, is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 (tiff).

Whoop, whoop to local talent.

Shot on an iPhone 7s, High Fantasy tells the story of four friends who wake up while camping to discover they have swapped bodies.

Think a Blair Witch Project-styled Freaky Friday mixed with fearless conversations about race politics in South Africa’s post-Mandela years, and you might have a slight idea where the film is heading.

Here’s more from Screen Africa:

From the get-go, their jovial antics are interspersed with cutting conversations about race, land claims, and gender relations. Against starkly beautiful desert landscapes, the group captures these debates on their phones (between performing party tricks and hitting joints).

But when they wake up the next day, they’ve inexplicably swapped bodies.

Now, the discussions from the day before take on painful, and potentially destructive, new meanings.

Featuring powerful performances from Qondiswa James, Liza Scholtz, Nala Khumalo, and Francesca Michel, each actor played their part in co-writing and filming the movie, the ultimate collaboration.

Take a look at the trailer:

Speaking to Channel24, Bass spoke about the tiff nod:

“I strongly believe that art – and cinema – has to respond to the environment that’s producing it.

“So, if young South Africans, and maybe even young people around the rest of the world, feel that it represents something they’re going through, I will be proud of the work we’ve done.

“The fact that the film has already been identified by the youth-driven Next Wave Committee at Tiff is very exciting for me.”

Hell’s yeah.

So proud of you, Liza <3

[source:channel24&screenafrica:]