Out of Africa: how Netflix’s ambitions could change the continent’s cinema

The streaming giant has come knocking, but a lack of infrastructure and government support continues to hinder the continent telling its own stories

It was the sight of donkeys carrying camera equipment that reminded Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese he was shooting in Lesotho. The director was filming This Is Not a Burial, It Is a Resurrection in a remote part of his tiny home nation, which has no cinemas and - unsurprisingly - zero film infrastructure. It's a bit daring to take a crew there and shoot because there's no electricity," Mosese says from his home in Berlin. Especially when we go to the mountains - we had to rely on the donkeys because at some point we just couldn't carry the equipment."

The shoot ran on petrol-powered generators. Villagers pitched in as ad-hoc crew members. Many fingers were crossed. We had to build everything from scratch," he says. That approach didn't harm the film. Critically lauded, the stylish mood piece about grief, community and egregious land development has been entered in the Oscars as the country's 2021 candidate.