The Four Corners -‘Die Vier Hoeke’ – is South African prison slang for the four corners of a prison cell.

Ian Gabriel just wrapped principal photography on his Cape ganglands coming of age thriller titled Four Corners.

The film centers on a 13-year-old chess prodigy who's drawn into Cape Town’s notorious child-gang culture. His absent father, recently released from prison, tries to break the pattern of violence and keep his son away from the Four Corners. Fatherless and brought up by his granny, Faita, his gift for playing chess and his involvement with feisty girlfriend, compete with the street gangs in offering him a surrogate home. He is drawn into the world of the gangs by a 22-year-old American gang boss, who first bullies him into gambling for money on a chess match, then pressures him into taking part in a theft to prove his worthiness as gang material. Meanwhile a detective is conducting an ongoing investigation into the disappearance and abduction of young boys connected by family and association to a rival gang. The community lives in fear on the streets as dirty money, weapons and juvenile gangs overwhelm the area, as some find themselves torn between rebuilding the community, relationships and family, and answering the call for revenge.

The ambitious, complex screenplay for Four Corners, which is based on an original idea by Ian Gabriel and Hofmeyr Scholtz, was developed over many years. It has over 60 speaking parts and several intersecting stories, and is described further as an epic ‘low budget’ South African film, cast with a combo of veteran, beginner and non-actors, drawn from schools and communities across the Cape Flats.

Based on the description alone, having not seen a trailer for this, I'm envisioning comparisons being made to City Of God, itself with several characters, and an ambitious, low-budget (compared to Hollywood movies anyway) epic-style production. 

Ian Gabriel’s last work, Forgiveness, was an African Voices selection for the 10 Best African Films of the past decade, last year. 

He tells ScreenAfrica that part of his objective in making Four Corners was to create training and opportunities for sustainable filmmaking and film storytelling on the Flats. Not only were many of the actors recruited from the community the film was shot in, but so were crew members who were trained, and will continue to work in film in the future, using what they’ve learned.

Four Corners is scheduled for local and international release in mid-2013.

No trailer yet.