Traversing Cape Town’s deserted inner city on his delivery bike, Paul Mwasi, a Malawian immigrant new to the city, irks out a life during the surreal months of Corona lockdown. Delivering food door to door, he meets a world of gates, empty streets and silent stares; his only lifeline is a cellphone connecting him to his work and his family, digital faces illuminating him.
Paul’s personal journey is a signifier of the lonesome months of a world pandemic and, more generally, of the isolation in an unknown place. The solitary circumstances Paul toils in are the conditions under which most African migrants live and labour in South Africa – an invisibility constantly threatened by a salient xenophobia that simmers all around them.
Deliver Me is at once an exploration of migrant and longing, and a reminder of what it means to labour under the throws of the dark shadows of late post-colonial capitalism.
CREDITS
A film by: PAPER CRANES COLLABORATIVE
In collaboration with: CTRL. ALT. SHIFT
Mise en Scéne: Jannous Nkululeko Aukema
Cinematography: Elijah Ndoumbé
Editor: Catherine Meyburgh
Music: Maurice Ravel, Introduction et Allegro, 1905. Performed by KammerMusikKöln
Sound Design and Recording: Denise Onen
Produced by: Mitchell Harper, Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Puleng Lange-Stewart
Translations: Chrispin Chikumbutso Waleza-Kampal Phiri, Mog Isaac Zuze
Colourist: Thomas Dreyer
Colourist Assistants: Kekeletso Kitso Monare, Katlego Madlala
Title Design: Riaan Botha
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO PAUL.
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema is a filmmaker and composer based in South Africa. He works in a wide range of genres and forms, from narrative fiction to documentary, theatre and multi-media installation. His films have been screened at various prestigious film festivals, and he has received critical acclaim as an interdisciplinary artist, film score, and theatre composer. His work pivots around the themes of ancestral memory, social justice, migration and post-coloniality.
Paola Paleari (b. 1984) is an Italian independent writer, editor and curator based in Copenhagen. She co-curated the Contemporary Art Program 2021-2022 at Vestjyllands Kunstpavillon and has directed the exhibition platform JIR SANDEL since 2018. She writes extensively about contemporary art and between 2013 and 2018 she covered the position of Deputy Editor at YET magazine. Her main area of interest is the photographic language and its relations with contemporary visual culture and art practices. She is also interested in the intersection between critical and creative writing and often intertwines art criticism with other forms of storytelling.
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min
Jannous Nkululeko Aukema, Deliver Me, 2021, video still, HD video and sound, single screen, subtitled, 28:44min