Get ready for a treat as writer and director Sunu Goneras’ much-awaited film “Riding With Sugar” will be premiering on Netflix November 27. Seventeen years in the making, the film boasts of cast members including Hakeem Kae-Kazim of “Black Sails,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “X-Men” and “Hotel Rwanda” and break out stars breakout stars Charles Mnene and Simona Brown
The film tells the story of a young refugee, Joshua (Charles Mnene), who has dreams of winning a BMX cycling championship as a means of finding a better life. A pivotal event redirects his fate… He meets Mambo (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), an enigmatic educator and foreigner himself who offers shelter to young refugees from all over the African continent. When Joshua meets Olivia (Simona Brown), a talented young dancer from a well-to-do family, it brings him into a world he has never known before, but their burgeoning love casts a shadow over Mambo’s agenda.
About the experience Gonera says,
Often ‘the Mother City’ is depicted as picturesque and sometimes one dimensional with the mountain and the sea as the sole reference points. While this film certainly represents that view, it also juxtaposes it with a side of Cape Town that’s often ignored. A side where the dust and the grit prevails; down where the forgotten poor live. South African audiences in particular, will identify with the realness and familiarity of this as well as with the undercurrents of hope that make the human spirit prevail. We live in exciting times where stories, by Africans, have a platform to make our voices heard – our truth, dreams and aspiration are being told in ways that find credence abroad, and Netflix is leading this movement globally for African storytellers.
Text excluding title courtesy Bellanaija
