ROAD TO RAINBOW
By Mo Asumang
SYNOPSIS
“I cannot be me, without you” – these wise words once were said by the South African wisdom “Ubuntu”, now retold by activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu. With these words he sends Mo Asumang, director of Road to Rainbow, on her search for verification of the so called Rainbow Nation, a term coined to describe post-apartheid, a land which eked out racial harmony. But did this really happen? And what could be seen during the soccer world cup?
In company with comedian Kagiso Lediga, her tour guide, Mo travels in a rusty old minibus to figure out if - sixteen years after the end of Apartheid – blacks and whites live together equally. She speaks with Politicians and other well known figures such as F.W. de Klerk (former president of South Africa), Helen Zille (Leader of the Democratic Alliance), Patricia De Lille (Leader of the Independent Democrats) and Geoff Doidge (ANC Minister) who give their opinions about the existence of a Rainbow Nation in South Africa.
Mo and Kagiso find the truth in the lives of street children, township families, in the periphery of crime and security and by making friends with the little boy Inganathi, who is HIV positive.
„Road to Rainbow“ portraits the image of a changing african society in an entertaining, profound, and, above all in a naive yet provocative way.
DIRECTOR´S BIOGRAPHY
In her new Film “Road to Rainbow” Mo is searching for the lost Vision of the Rainbow Nation in South Africa, which was supposed to replace the Apartheid Era. But did that really happen?
Mo Asumang was the second black TV Presenter in Germany 1996.
1997 the German TV Channel Pro 7 gave Mo the chance to present the TV Magazin “Liebe Sünde”, in which was seen by 2,0 to 3,0 Million people every Wednesday at 22:15.
Mo Asumang studied Visual Communication in Kassel and Classical Singing in Berlin. She worked as a taxi driver, dishwasher, barkeeper and model and since her start as a TV Presenter she has also been successful as a producer, author, director, as an actress for example in Roman Polanski`s “The Ghostwriter” (2010) she is playing the Role of the US Secretary of State. She is doing dubbing voice for productions like Independence Day, Heat, Startrek Voyager, Cold Case, etc. In 2004, she founded the MA Motion production company and began to work on her documentary “Roots Germania”, which she coproduced with the ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel in cooperation with the Konrad Wolf Academy of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg.
Mo Asumangs debutfilm was shown fifteen times on TV within 5 month, got 60 articles within the first weeks and Mo presents the movie now even in Schools and Universitys in Germany, the US and in African countries. Roots Germania was nominated for Germanys most popular TV Prize “Grimme Award” and shown on several Filmfestivals in Germany such as in Berlin, Hamburg and Kassel, and in Africa in Rwanda, Kamerun, Mocambique (Goethe Institut Screenings in Ghana and Togo).
Since Roots Germania, Mo Asumang has been selected as one of the leading figures in Germany for Integration and Intercultural Affairs.
CREW
Director/Writer: Mo Asumang
DOP: Felix Leiberg
Editor: Karin Nowarra
Music: Johannes Malfatti
Commissioning Editor: Claudia Tronnier (ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel)
Producer: MA Motion
Production Company: MA Motion Filmproduktion
Co-producer: ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Original Title: Road to Rainbow / HDCam / 35 mm / 16:9 / 82 and 52 min/ Stereo Surround / Original Language: English with German and French Subtitles / Germany 2010
