THE FATHER INSIDE
2009
48 min HD
Directors: Rehad Desai and Arya Lalloo
Producer: Rehad Desai
SABC 2
Magadien Wentzel was first arrested in the mid seventies for taking part in a student protest against apartheid. This event was to change the course of his life.
He spent most of his adulthood in Western Cape prisons and as a leader of the 28 gang, a powerful man who commanded fear on the “inside”.
But destiny and history intervened again when prison reform programmes were introduced in South African prisons after Apartheid ended. When he was finally released in 2003, Magadien faced the arduous task of proving his reform to his three children, his community and himself.
IT HAPPENED TO ME
2008
Directors: Rehad Desai, Arya Lalloo, Darryl Els, Michael Matsie
Producer: Rehad Desai
4 x 48min Documentaries
SABC 2
It Happened to me was a series of documentaries that featured real-life stories of triumph over tragedy. Uhuru Productions produced 4 episodes of the remarkably popular 12 part series which receiving an estimated audience of 4.6 million viewers.
My Land my Life
2002
60min SD
Director: Rehad Desai
Producer: Rehad Desai
South Africa
My Land My Life is a journey into the heart of Zimbabwean crisis. We enter the story through the eyes of the filmmaker, who once lived in Zimbabwe and held Mugabe in esteem as he returns to make sense of the conflict and is led into a strife torn farming area.Through cultural characters that include a farmer, a farm worker and a war veteran we enter the social texture of present day drama that defines rural and urban Zimbabwe. The conflict between farm worker and settlers is explored as is the conflict between farmer and farm worker.‘My Land My Life’ is a nuanced piece that is frank in its pro-equality stance and candid but poetic in the critique of those who claim to represent the interests of peasants and workers on both sides.