Experiencing Interruptions?

|Xau

In the now extinct language of the |Xam Bushman people of Southern Africa |Xau or |Xaun meant to shoot with a magical arrow or go on a magical expedition. Unearthed in an ancient dictionary, it is a powerful example of what indigenous people have lost. The newer languages that have come to replace the rich indigenous lexicons do not have a word that comes close in meaning. It is hard to restore our connections with the land, our love and respect of all that is, without finding the |Xau of now.

For the mixed descendants of the indigenous people, the colonials and the slaves (brought to South Africa mainly from Asia and other parts of Africa) their version of Afrikaans has been until recently the only tool they had to build and solidify an African identity. But now things are changing. People are delving into history to fetch precious intangible possessions that have been ripped out of their existence, out of their beings. In Southern Africa people are healing by relearning the languages that have survived, mainly Khoekhoegowab or its closest equivalent Nama (also from Namibia).

When languages were destroyed, First Nations people lost important elements of their culture as well as entire civilisations. They lost a way of being in the world. Emulating a colonial way of expressing themselves, their connection with the land and with the divine aspects of themselves became broken.

This short film is an reflection of tumbling around in the maelstrom of the modern world, in search of what has been lost, in search of those magical arrows. People need to find the |Xau of now to restore their relationship with the land and the Divine within. Only then will we begin to heal what has been destroyed without and within.

  • Sylvia Bara-ta-Ken Vollenhoven
    Director
    Jozi Gold
  • Sylvia Bara-ta-Ken Vollenhoven
    Writer
    Jozi Gold
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 28 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 31, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    South Africa
  • Country of Filming:
    South Africa
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • COP26 Film Festival
    Edinburgh
    United Kingdom
    November 3, 2021
    European Premiere
    Official selection
Distribution Information
  • VIA
    Sales Agent
    Country: South Africa
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Sylvia Bara-ta-Ken Vollenhoven

A writer, award-winning journalist, playwright and filmmaker. In 2019 appointed the University of Johannesburg’s first ever Professor of Practice. Awarded Sweden's main journalism prize by the Publicistklubben, the prestigious Nordic academy of writers and publishers. The citation reads… “For doing a brave, professional job under difficult circumstances…".

Nomination: Cinema for Peace Award 2021 for Jozi Gold (Co Director & SA Producer). This feature documentary - a Sweden, SA & Norway co production - was chosen for a special screening to launch the 21st Encounters Film Festival (SA) and for an international premiere at the prestigious CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. Former Foreign Correspondent for Sweden's main daily newspaper Expressen. Commissioned by the District Six Museum and Artscape to write Dance of the La Gumas - Revolution, Rumba & Romance, a play about the renowned writer Alex La Guma that had a sold-out debut run in 2022. Commissioned by the Volksoperahuis of Amsterdam to write Krotoa Eva van de Kaap, a play that premiered in the Netherlands to standing ovations before sold-out runs in South Africa. Her seminal dance drama about Khoisan identity, The Keeper of the Kumm (based on the creative non-fiction novel of the same name), opened on the main programme at the National Arts Festival (NAF). Winner of the Jury Prize, Audience Award and the 1st Prize at the Caribbean Tales Big Pitch at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) for her feature film in development, Buckingham Palace District Six. A play she co-authored, My Word, Redesigning Buckingham Palace, was chosen for a run on London’s West End and for the main programme at the NAF. The Main Festival also selected another of her plays, Cold Case – Revisiting Dulcie September. The latter won both the inaugural Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts as well as a Standard Bank Audience Award. SA Producer for the BBC TV mini-series Mandela the Living Legend. Chair of the 2018 & 2019 Alan Paton Literary Award Jury. Guest Lecturer at the Universities of the Free State, Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Member of the International Emmy Awards 2018 Jury. Led media projects for the UK’s Thomson Foundation in association with Oxford and Cardiff Universities.

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Director Statement

My people had a word – No, more than a word – |Xau flowed through us – Lived in us – Connected us – Then it left us
When it went away – This word that is more than a word – It tumbled down the mountains – And out of our mouths – A precious possession… stolen, gone
Nothing has come to fill the vacant house of the |Xau – Magic does not live in the home of the new words – Disconnected broken arrows – Going nowhere
Our children play with empty words – That do not speak of mystical journeys
|Xau – My people had a word
|Xau – So much more than a word
|Xau – Melodies no longer heard
But deep in the earth there is healing – The land awaits our right doing – Ancestral Voices guide us back – To other Magical Arrows – And the melody of words that are more than words
To the |Xau of now