The sacred and the scientific collide in opening film of Mbawula Festival

WHEN the Mbawula Youth Film Festival opens on Wednesday, August 6, it will do so with a film that perfectly embodies the heart of the festival’s mission: to ignite conversations, challenge perspectives, and celebrate storytelling rooted in identity, memory, and transformation.

!AITSA, directed by Dane Dodds, is more than a documentary — it’s a cinematic meditation on humanity’s search for meaning. Set in the vast and haunting landscapes of the Great Karoo desert, the 88-minute English-language film explores the intersection of ancient spiritual wisdom and cutting-edge science. It examines what happens when the spiritual traditions of the Khoi and San people encounter the towering presence of modern astronomy through the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), one of the world’s largest radio telescope projects.

Voices from scientists, spiritual leaders, historians, and local communities echo across this journey, from the SKA’s sprawling high-tech installations to the sacred echoes of the Blombos cave. The film raises profound questions about the nature of knowledge and the rights of indigenous people to be part of scientific progress. It asks whether modernity can coexist with ancestral memory, and what we might lose when we forget the spiritual roots of human understanding.

One of the film’s core themes is animism — the belief that all living things possess a spiritual essence — and how this worldview clashes and coexists with the hyper-rationalism of modern science. At its core, !AITSA is a reflection on the spiritual cost of progress, and the enduring mystery of existence. It delves into the gaps between the known and the unknowable, seeking out stories and symbols that continue to guide people even as satellites and data replace stargazers and oral historians.

The film has been screened at numerous festivals around the world and has received multiple awards for its thought-provoking direction, visual beauty, and philosophical depth. But its screening at Mbawula feels especially poignant — not just because it was shot in South Africa, but because it centres the country’s land, people, and contradictions.

There are no age restrictions on !AITSA, but its layered storytelling and contemplative pacing invite a mature engagement. The film’s inclusion as the Mbawula Youth Film Festival’s opening feature signals the organisers’ commitment to celebrating films that dare to question, reflect, and imagine a different future.

As the festival’s theme reminds us — “30 Years of South Africa Through Film” — !AITSA helps illuminate that journey, asking what we’ve gained, what we’ve lost, and what wisdom we still carry with us in the dust and stars of the Karoo.

SCREENING:

!AITSA — Wednesday, August 6, at 5pm

Northern Cape Theatre, Kimberley

Directed by Dane Dodds

Length: 1h 28m | Language: English | Age restriction: None