Paheja Siririka
WINDHOEK- Namibia has produced great films over the years, be it feature films, short or documentaries
Power Stone – The story of the Kwanyama Kingdom, and Born in Etosha, by Andrew Botelle; Wanahepo – The Return of a Namibian Hero by Per Sanden; Testimony – Breaking the Wall of Silence by Simon Wilkie and short films by Tim Huebschle, Beef, Looking for Iilonga, Rider without a Horse and Orange Juice, the list goes on. However, the biggest hurdle is finance, according to The 3rd Will Director, Bienvenu Lukoki. “The Executive Producer and I had to do it from our own pockets due to lack of support,” says Lukoki further adding that they had to compromise many technical aspects of the production. “The more we decided to not give up, the more we learnt a lot about how to produce good quality TV series with no budget,” says Lukoki.
The 3rd Will is a locally- produced soap opera that has been airing for five years. Lukoki says he desired to put Namibia on the map with it. “I am so glad that we did because right now many Sadc countries are following The 3rd Will on DSTV. I will tell you now, we got comments from Zambia, they could not believe that Namibia could produce such a good quality TV series,” says Lukoki. It is a family show that everyone can watch, it is about family turmoil filled with love, money, power and greed but love overcomes evil. The telling of stories through songs and movies has an impact on people’s everyday lives. “I felt sad one day when a lady came to see me and she wanted to know how the story will end because they were facing the same problem in their family,” recalls Lukoki. “Their father left a will before he died and people took hold of the will and forged it, in the process, they lost everything till this day they keep on fighting, he says.
One can learn a lot from movies with many seeking answers, “they never won the case and she thought by following The 3rd Will they will find a solution and I was a director of The 3rd Will did not know what to say because for me The 3rd Will is just fiction. In the near future, the team hopes the show will become a soapy that will stay for a generation.”
You can catch The 3rd Will on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Zambezi Magic (DStv channel 160) at 19:30.