About the film

In a remote village in the mountains of Lesotho, an 80-year-old widow named Mantoa (Twala Mhlongo) is devastated by the news of the death of her son. With no family left in the world, Mantoa resolves to end her own life, seeking a man to dig her a grave. But when the local authorities announce their plans to displace the villagers and expropriate their ancestral land, she is taken by a sudden gust of life. Sowing the seeds of resistance within her community, Mantoa galvanizes her people in a spiritual uprising against the soulless march of modernization.

Winner of the Special Jury Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is a bold and uncompromising vision from a new voice that weaves South African folklore into social realist drama to tell a story of identity, colonial legacy, and the power of resilience. With his third feature, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese crafts an ethereal and elemental parable told with exquisitely constructed images that will sear themselves indelibly into your conscience. —Dan Boos

About the filmmaker

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is a self-taught filmmaker from Lesotho. Two of his short films, 

Mosonngoa (2014) and Behemoth—or the Game of God (2015), have been screened in numerous international film festivals. Mosese is also an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Campus (2012), Focus Features Africa First Short Film Program (2012), Realness Screenwriter's Residency (2017), and Final Cut in Venice workshop (2018). Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You (2019) was his first feature-length film and won six awards at the Final Cut in Venice workshop, premiering at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. He lives in Berlin.