“When you make a little film without stars and not in English, you [just] hope you get into international festivals, so we didn't know if we'd get accepted in competition in Edinburgh or Toronto. Each [one seemed to bring] attention to the film to audiences around the world. We [originally] just wanted it to play in London, New York and Los Angeles like most small films do.”
“This may sound melodramatic but I have never, ever worked so hard. The film will be released in a different country every week for the next six weeks. I've just come back from Germany, France and Sweden to be in LA for the nominations and to speak to the American press.”
“I'm in Los Angeles, and like almost everyone in this crazy business of ours, I watched on TV bleary-eyed. Being the last film to be announced [in the category], my heart was pounding. One isn't quite prepared for something like this.”
“We arranged a meeting in Los Angeles with big name stars, but I had to drop the idea. I wanted to film in the local Soweto dialect that only Soweto youth can speak and believed that shooting in any other language would dilute the impact of the film.”
“Although it seems to be a ghetto movie, it very quickly becomes a much more intimate story, the story of this young, teenage, lost, crazy, out-of-control kid and a baby that he hides from his friends.”
“One of the struggles and one of the exciting things for South African filmmakers is: What stories are we allowed to tell? I hope for the industry that more and more, it will tell whatever stories it likes.”