South African production company Turning Heads is set to release I Don’t…!, the first in a planned film-trilogy, called A Love Promised, that addresses that county’s rising problem of domestic violence.
I Don’t . . . ! will have it’s public premiere on Feb. 29, at the Monte Carlo Casino in Johannesburg.
Turning Heads CEO Nonkululeko Ndlovu stars in the film’s lead role as Mpumi Mkhize. I Don’t . . .! also stars Themba Mkhize, Tazz Nginda, Thuli Thabethe, Penny Lebyanne, and Jeanette Chambers. Marina Bekker & Dare Oluwasanmi are co-directing.
Check out the synopsis for I Don’t . . .! :
Mpumi Mkhize is in love and she is blessed enough to marry her perfect man. Happiness is hers for the plucking until the first time he lifts his fist against her.
Mpumi notices, to her extreme discomfort, that somebody is watching her….. She is watchful, even fearful, until ‘that somebody introduces herself…. Mpumi has betrayed her true self in order to give herself so whole-heartedly to Themba, her love, her husband, her tormentor…! This is the story about Mpumi having to honour her True Self and save herself and her daughter, Nomsa, from the man she loves. Something no woman should be subjected to! With the help and interference of her two best friends, Nolwazi and Grace, Mpumi has to find the strength, and self-love, to stand up and find her wings for the sake of her and her daughter….. Denying abuse and embracing life!
Turning Heads insists that I Don’t . . .! isn’t just a movie, but a movement, stating:
We have one of the highest domestic violence rates in the world. We are a nation in crisis.
Nonkululeko Ndlovu CEO of Turning Heads & executive producer of I Don't . . .! together with Penny Lebyane's 'Find Your Wings' Foundation will do a tour of the nine provinces. Showing the film and subsequently holding workshops. These workshops will pose as a platform where audiences may be able to ask questions and discuss their views and opinions on the content of the film and the issues tackled within the film.
The film’s website reveals what to expect from the next two parts of A Love Promised, to be shot later this year:
The sequel “I DO…. AGAIN” tackles the other side of the coin….
This is a thorny issue and the Filmmakers are adamant not to portray the husband as a monster… therefore the second film, “I DO…. AGAIN” digs deep into the thoughts, insecurities, fears and rages Themba, the husband lives through, rendering him unable to cope with his life, his marriage and his love!…
“I DO…. AGAIN” tells the story of the husband, Themba Mkhize realising he not only loves his wife, but needs her and his daughter to come home and complete his family once more. He convinces the wife that he is going for counselling and that they should get back together, and they renew their vows…
In the third film, “NEVER AGAIN” the wife leaves yet again when the beatings become intensified but this time he wants to kill her, to prevent her from leaving him again. He is a man apart from the world he lives in, where the demand for him to perform and succeed seem relentless, driving him over the edge. His sense of failure in a world that no longer makes sense to him overwhelms him and the violence gets out of hand, increasing in occurrence and intensity.
