After winning Best South African Documentary Award at the 42nd edition of the Oscar-qualifying Durban International Festival, the Murder in Paris documentary, which traces the motives for the assassination of anti-apartheid struggle icon Dulcie September, will now be screened in schools, bringing this powerful story into the classroom.
According to a statement issued on Wednesday, while the Women’s Month screenings are part of a pilot phase to screen Murder in Paris in 20 schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng, there are plans to extend the initiative so that all schools have access to the film and supporting educational materials.
The screenings will be supported by a comprehensive educational guide, said the statement.
Directed by Enver Samuel, Murder in Paris is a political crime thriller documentary that traces the motives for the assassination of Cape Town-born anti-Apartheid activist, September.
September was the ANC representative in France who was mysteriously murdered in the heart of Paris on March 29, 1988.
“Taking this film to schools which unpacks the life and circumstances of September’s assassination has been an eye-opener and indicator of how role players of the struggle have somehow been forgotten or their stories never told,” Gauteng screenings facilitator Siso Naile said.
According to the film director, preliminary discussions are under way with the Western Cape Education Department to incorporate the film into the curriculum for 2022.
To date nobody has been found guilty of her murder. The case in France was closed after four years and the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were unresolved as the evidence received from the French investigation was insufficient.
Lawyers working on behalf of September’s family, are motivating for the reopening of the case.