Please join the DFA’s docLOVE Screenings Programme for a special screening of Lobola: A Bride’s True Price directed by DFA member Sihle Hlophe.

March 2014. Filmmaker Sihle Hlophe has just gotten engaged. A few days later, her father passes away. Sihle is in a serious fix – who will receive the Lobola now that her father is no more? Sihle respects Lobola but she has reservations about the transactional, patriarchal and heteronormative elements of the practise. In an eff ort to learn more about Lobola before making her final decision, Sihle attends the Lobola ceremonies of three other couples. Couple No.1 is a Zulu couple from Katlehong, Gauteng. The negotiations are almost halted when the groom’s family fails to raise the amount requested by the bride’s family. Couple No. 2 is from Tokoza, Gauteng. The groom is Tsonga and the bride is Sotho. Their cultures collide during the negotiations, making it abundantly clear that they have diffe rent understandings of what Lobola is and how it should be conducted. Couple No.3’s wedding took place in Eastern Cape but they’re based in Kwa Zulu Natal. The bride is Xhosa and the groom is Zulu. Even though the bride’s father passed away 20 years ago, he was honoured as if he was alive during the proceedings. Sihle also visits a same-sex couple who’ve been married for 14 years. They were the first couple to get married under the Civil Union Act in 2006. They’re deeply rooted in African Spirituality so it was imperative for them to go through the Lobola process too. After years of vacillating, Sihle comes to an important realisation – Lobola is not just about uniting two families. It is also about honouring the ancestors of those two families. What will her final decision be? Will she turn her back on Lobola or will she embrace it?

Sihle Hlophe is a multi award-winning director/scriptwriter and  the founder and executive producer of Passion Seed Communications, a film-driven social enterprise. Over the last 14 years, her work has been recognised with a number of accolades including two African Movie Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary. Hlophe is an alumni of the IDFAcademy (the Netherlands), the North-South-South Student Exchange Program (Finland) and the Hot Docs Blue Ice Group Story Lab (Canada). Hlophe is currently directing two feature-length documentaries, “Celebrating Herstory Through Song” (SA, Nigeria) and Road To Jerusalem (SA, Israel). She is the producer and director of the feature-length documentary, “Lobola, A Bride’s True Price”, winner of the Most Outstanding Documentary Project award at the Durban Film Mart (2017). Hlophe directed, “Lindela Under Lockdown” (2020), winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Cameroon International Film Festival and the Best Documentary Short Award at the South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTAs). In 2021, Hlophe directed and produced “Celebrating Herstory Through Song”; in 2022. Hlophe has directed two feature-length Showmax Original made-for- TV fiction films, “Pearls Of Wisdom” and “Expiry Date”. Hlophe is also the director of “African Dreams” (2021), a SAFTA-winning 13-part mocku-series that was broadcast on SABC 1. Hlophe is
the co-producer of ‘Sadla’ (2020), a narrative short film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (USA). Hlophe has written and directed two award-winning narrative short films, “As I Am” (2014) and “Nomfundo” (2017), that have been screened at over 40 film festivals around the world. Between 2012 and 2017, she worked as a scriptwriter and storyliner on award winning TV shows such as “Lockdown”, “Scandal”, “Mutual Friends” and “Broken Vows”. She has also worked as a part-time Lecturer at AFDA (2016) and the University of Johannesburg (2018/19).

The docLOVE programme is supported by the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP3) administered by the NFVF.