Johannesburg, Thursday, 11 June 2020 – Off the back of a global Black Lives Matter movement and the recent gender-based violence that has gripped the country this week,
Elo Zar’s Bophelo music video featuring
Kommanda Obbs is the visual anthem the country needs.
Amidst injustice and the financial hardships spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the song’s tag line, “Bophelo ha bo easy - Life is hard” has been an appropriate one, however, the Bophelo music video shows that we are stronger than our circumstances and have a resilient fighting power within us.
The video uses boxing Gogos to depict not only the country's resilience but the resilience of Black women.
Watch it
here.
Shot just before the lockdown, Elo Zar’s Bophelo music video was directed by multi award-winning director, Tebogo Malope, who is the director of Netflix’s first African original series, Queen Sono, and holds a Cannes Lion Gold, 2 X SAFTAs and a Lories Grand Prix to his name just to highlight a few.
On how the Bophelo music video narrative came about,
Tebogo Malope shares: “We drew inspiration from the song itself, a homage to people facing some difficulty in life yet keep their heads up and continue fighting. It is in these trying times an anthem like this carries more resonance. The rationale was how do we visually showcase this. The idea of super powered boxing Grannies was birthed.”
Elo Zar adds: “I grew up to dream about the might that lies in being a woman and found myself frustrated with the norms in which women have been defined. I started fantasizing about turning these norms on their head and imagined a society where the old women only grew stronger as they aged both mentally and physically. I hope that we as women, after bearing kids and giving off so much of ourselves, allowed ourselves to become stronger and fight the expected weakness that death and time tend to dangle against us. That we learn to empower ourselves for ourselves in health, education, leadership and will.”
**Press Release**
