Film Synopsis: The Shore Break

In a close-knit community in South Africa, two cousins take sides against each other in a story which beautifully and steadily spotlights corruption, the nature of “development”, international land grabbing and our own consumer dependencies in the West.

Stunningly shot in Ryley Grunenwald’s award-winning film, the Wild Coast Region is one of the most underdeveloped areas in South Africa. Here the Pondo people retain a traditional way of life and agriculture, until TEM enter the scene – an Australian company with plans to mine titanium, a key mineral in mobile phones and computers. Wary of the erosion of community-led development, local tour guide Nonhle is against the mine and co-ordinates widespread resistance to it. But her cousin Madiba, representing an array of outside interests, believes economic prosperity will derive from the mine – at least for him and his allies. But which way will the shore break?

This film was supported by the Bertha / Doc Society Connect Fund.