Unicef, Kunye Jona Schlosser
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

KUNYE is a unique student project. It deals with an increasingly important topic: loneliness has a significant impact on people's health and life expectancy, often leads to self-harm or suicide and has continued to rise in recent years. Many countries in Africa in particular are reporting an increase in loneliness. Director Jona Schlosser, from the class of 2021 at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, was in Cape Town in 2023-2024 as part of a university exchange programme. There he got to know Ben Smalls and came to appreciate him as a close friend. Ben works in the South African film industry as a props assistant on set. He comes from Franschhoek and grew up on the border of Groendal, so he already knew Mpho. He put Jona in touch with the theater teacher and together with Filmakademie camera student Hanno Mertin, the idea developed to tell the story of a boy who loses all his friends in a race to the beach, whereby we deliberately left open whether these friends ever existed. We had the intention of making a social spot on this topic for Unicef and came across some shocking figures during our research. One in five children worldwide is affected by loneliness. Around half of all mental illnesses begin at the age of 14, many far earlier, but most cases remain undetected and untreated. Loneliness is a particularly notable problem in our modern world. While some countries such as the UK have already established a Ministry of Loneliness or other programs to combat isolation and its sometimes fatal consequences, the issue remains a much more stigmatized taboo in the Global South. When we met Mphosizi Qalekizo, it quickly became clear that his work with children in Groendal near Franschhoek, South Africa, is a special example of how children and young people can learn to deal with their inner world through art. His theater class is constantly fluctuating in size, as every child in that area is affected by poverty and cannot always pursue acting as a hobby in the long term. However, some group members such as Lico, Lundje and Oyama are an integral part of the regular rehearsals and performances. They dream of one day becoming actors in South Africa, Nigeria or overseas. One afternoon on the outskirts of the township we got to know the children and teenagers and organized a first joint reading of the script and a small, improvisational and play-based casting.

Filming in Groendal was very challenging. Since there were only four of us with Mpho, everyone had to take on several tasks at the same time. In addition, we could only shoot on weekends because the children went to school during the week. Groendal is a relatively safe place for foreigners who have the necessary local contacts, and we were mostly welcomed warmly by the community. But of course we had to limit our equipment to a very small, inconspicuous camera, a Sony FX3 with a Zoom Lens, and always be on guard. By the time we had done the warm-up exercises with the children in front of everyone in the township, it was clear that we were not here as tourists to gawk, but because we were working with Mpho and the children. This made all of us, as Mpho put it well, equal to one another in this once-in-a-lifetime project. We want to thank Mpho and his theater group, for without them, none of this would have been possible.