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The festival happens once every two years, so it shouldn't surprise when they reveal their lineup, and it includes films like this one that have been in circulation for about 2 years. So they're a bit late, but it's still good that these films screen there eventually.

Scheduled to screen at the twenty third (23rd) edition of the Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), which will take place from February 23 to March 2, 2013, is the South African *neo-noir* thriller How To Steal 2 Million, which we've being following for almost 2 years since I first profiled it, and was intrigued by, based on what I read about it, and saw from its trailer.

A quick recap…

Directed by Charles Vundla, the film stars Menzi Ngubane, Rapulana Seiphemo, Terry Pheto, Hlubi Mboya and John Kani. Kani might be the most familiar to those in the west. A veteran actor of stage and screen, as well as a writer in his own right, Kani's resume includes parts in The Ghost And The Darkness, and Sarafina, as well as alongside Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler in Coriolanus, the 2011 film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy.

The film's synopsis reads:

It’s a jungle out there. That’s how we meet our lead character Jack. It’s been five years since he’s seen his partner and best friend Twala. Jack did five years for a robbery gone bad. Twala never got caught and Jack never talked. But Twala is as treacherous as Jack is honorable. He’s married Jack’s former fiancée. Jack wants to go legit but after being rejected for a loan he needs a new source of capital. Twala presents him with an opportunity a job with a R2 million take. The complication is that the mark is Twala’s father. Jacks partner for the job is the tough and sexy Olive. Little does he know she will prove to be more devious then his old friend.

The title, by the way, is a play on the title of William Wyler's 1966 heist comedy How to Steal a Million, starring Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn.

If you're new to it, here's the good-looking official trailer for How To Steal 2 Million, which will next screen at FESPACO later this month:

John Kani

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