Fugitive has signed a deal with Topic, the new streaming service from First Look Media, for “Poppie Nongena”, one of South Africa’s most acclaimed films of recent years, to subscribers exclusively in North America, starting 8th April.
Based on Elsa Joubert’s 1978 international bestseller “The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena”, the two-hour film tells the true-life story of a mother’s struggle to keep her family together during the Apartheid period, specifically just prior to the Sharpeville and Soweto riots.
In “Poppie Nongena”, audiences follow Poppie (played by Clementine Mosimane) as she is declared ‘illegal’ in her own country and then engages in a desperate battle with the authorities for permission to stay while holding down a job, keeping her children educated and caring for her sick husband.
“Poppie Nongena” was written and directed by up-and-coming talent Christiaan Olwagen and produced by the award-winning filmmaker Helena Spring of Helena Spring Films. It has garnered multiple awards in South Africa and it has been a major hit on the international festival circuit.