AFDA alumnus and student Oscar winner Tristan Holmes’ debut feature film ‘The Fragile King’ will be screening at Film Mondays at AFDA, brought to you by the Goethe-Institut, Sacomm and AFDA on Monday 20 February at 17h30 on the AFDA Johannesburg campus. https://sacomm.org.za/film-mondays-at-afda/
The film has been enjoying great success on the international film circuit and has already picked up over 12 awards, including Best Director at the New Renaissance Film Festival in London and Best International Feature Film at the Overcome Film Festival.
‘The Fragile King’, directed and written by Tristan tells the story of an older white man, Gerald King (Andrew Buckland), who is closer to death than life who gets dumped with his 15 -year-old grandson (Alex de la Rey), when the child’s mother (AFDA alumna Antoinette Louw) dies in a drunken car crash. The boy, who barely knows this old man, is shocked into a new reality when he arrives at Gerald’s flat in Durban by Social Services. The film pays homage to the Tristan’s grandfather.
“Making this film taught me a lot about who I am. What my shortcomings are. What my limits are. In a sense it undid me a little, at a time in life that I needed some undoing. And that was very liberating. I think that those few months of filming and intensity and cold and difficulty and doubt and overcoming left me more vulnerable, less tethered by to the idea of who I thought I was, and a little more focused on who I actually am. This is an ongoing journey.” says Tristan
“Practically working with actors, finding solutions to tricky problems, touching those moments of genuine expression and the feeling of family at the edge of the world are powerful and galvanizing, and reminded me of what a beautiful thing life can be, when you are doing what you love.”
