Sightlines · reception

How This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection was received

2020 · Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese · This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection on Sightlines

The arc

It slipped out in the worst possible moment — a Sundance 2020 prize-winner (Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking) whose theatrical life was swallowed by the pandemic — then quietly climbed, via word of mouth and a Criterion Collection release, into 'modern classic of African cinema' status.

What’s debated

The split is less critic-vs-fan than devotee-vs-doubter: is its slow, painterly, 4:3 hypnosis transcendent cinema or a beautiful endurance test?

Its footprint

Its boxy, painting-like frames — Mary Twala's tiny figure in mourning black against the Lesotho mountains — are among the most screenshotted arthouse images of the 2020s, and the title itself regularly turns up on 'greatest film titles' lists.

Where it stands

A canon climber: Lesotho's first-ever Oscar submission, now a Criterion-anointed cornerstone of contemporary African cinema and a treasured Letterboxd 'have you seen this yet?' pick.

Did you know? It was the first film Lesotho ever submitted to the Oscars, and star Mary Twala — a legend of South African screen acting — died in July 2020, just months after its Sundance premiere, making this her final leading role.

Named by the director

• Djibril Diop Mambéty — Mosese has named the Senegalese director as a key influence — 'an African filmmaker who was rebellious, who wasn't a prisoner of language or form' — and says he strives for Mambéty's ideal of seeing with your ears and hearing with your eyes.