Saved events

This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection + Introduction by Onyeka Igwe (15*)

Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award

,Cinema 1
A person sitting on the bed

In this poetic, critically acclaimed drama, director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese explores what home and tradition mean when a village’s existence is threatened by the forces of progress.

Selected by filmmaker Onyeka Igwe to coincide with the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award for her book June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive. The book celebrates June Givanni’s legacy of cataloguing and preserving African cinema.

Set among the mountains of landlocked Lesotho, the film follows Mantoa, an 80-year-old widow who is preparing for the end of her life. She puts her affairs in order and makes arrangements for her burial.

But when her village is threatened with forced resettlement to make way for a reservoir, Mantoa finds a new reason to live. She brings her community together and inspires them to resist.

In the final dramatic moments of her life, Mantoa’s courage transforms her into a legend, ensuring that her story will live on.

Tagged with: Cinema

Sotho with English subtitles.

Following the screening please join us for a celebratory wine reception in the Cinema Foyer.

Film information
  • Release year   2019
  • Country of origin   Lesotho / South Africa / Italy
  • Director   Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
  • Runtime   2hrs

Ticket prices

Standard
£15.50 (£14 + £1.50 transaction fee)
* Excludes £1.50 booking fee

Booking fees

£1.50 booking fee per online/phone transaction.

No fee when tickets are booked in person.

Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. If your booking contains several events the highest booking fee will apply. The booking fee may be reduced on certain events. Members do not pay booking fees.

On June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive by Onyeka Igwe (published by Lawrence Wishart)

"The judges valued the depth of engagement with a worthy topic, the richness of the collated oral histories and film festival ephemera, and the fact that this book is itself an act of radical archiving; helping to further June Givanni’s life’s work by preserving the vitality of Pan-African Cinema for future generations to come.”

Ellen E Jones, Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award Judge 2026


 

Onyeka Igwe is a London born and based moving image artist and researcher. Her work is aimed at the question: how do we live together? Not to provide a rigid answer as such, but to pull apart the nuances of mutuality and co-existence in our deeply individualized world. Onyeka’s practice figures sensorial, spatial and counter-hegemonic ways of knowing as central to that task. She is interested in the prosaic and everyday aspects of black livingness. For her, the body, archives and narratives both oral and textual act as a mode of enquiry that makes possible the exposition of overlooked histories . The work comprises untying strands and threads, anchored by a rhythmic editing style, as well as close attention to the dissonance, reflection and amplification that occurs between image and sound.

The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards are the UK’s leading prizes celebrating excellence in photography and moving image publishing. They recognise individuals who have made an outstanding original or lasting contribution to literature concerning photography or the moving image (including film, television and new media). 
Kraszna-krausz.org.uk

Cinema 1

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.