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This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection



With a poet's eye for place, light, and the spiritual dimensions of everyday existence, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese crafts a meditation on the concept of homeland and a transcendent elegy for what is lost in the name of progress. Grieving and alone following the deaths of her husband and children, elderly Mantoa (Mary Twala Mhlongo, in a soul-shaking end-of-life performance) prepares for her own death and to be buried alongside her ancestors. When plans for a new dam near her village in the landlocked kingdom of Lesotho threaten to literally wash away all she holds dear, Mantoa takes a last stand, mobilizing her neighbors to fight for their land and their way of life. The experience of watching Mosese's visionary, much-lauded This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection is as timeless and elemental as the land itself.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 2K digital master, approved by director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring Mosese and producer Cait Pansegrouw
• Mosese's short films Mosonngoa (2014) and Behemoth: Or the Game of God (2016), along with his 2019 essay film Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You., with a new introduction by Mosese
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by novelist and playwright Zakes Mda

Hoping this winds up including some if not all of his earlier films, especially Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

Edit: it does!

This is a quiet and beautiful film. She gives one hell of a performance. It's good to see African continent cinema (Lesotho specifically doesn't have many to offer) entering the collection for American audiences.

Interesting to note from the back cover of this that this is a collaboration with the Dekanalog label, one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels.