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Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

Forum 2019
© Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
The people on the dusty streets of Lesotho stare inquisitively at the young woman, who, like Jesus, carries a wooden cross on her back. She looks back into their faces, at mystically beautiful landscapes, a herd of sheep, and a pair of hands that knit unceasingly. What she sees is rendered more visually precise by the black and white, more abstract by the slowed-down images, it is filtered through memories. A raw voice-over – aware that it is not being heard by those being addressed – structures the flow of images into a cinematic lament. In this essay film, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese succeeds in creating the chronicle of a radicalising sorrow, which steadily increases in scope from a personal farewell to the mother to a politically aware defection from the motherland. The painful process of shifting from an internal view of the small African country to an external one is visualised and commented on in a profoundly personal way – from the perspective of today, in exile, in Berlin. A pretty angel accompanies the passage. In intense, aching fashion, this unusual lament on an African story of migration sheds light on an realm of experience that is taboo and not only in cinema.
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by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (Written and Directed by)
with Thato Khobotle, Mercy Koetle, Pheku Lisema, Molibeli Mokake, Tsohle Mojati, Napo Kalebe, Sivan Ben Yishai Lesotho / Qatar 2019 English 76' Black/White World premiere

With

  • Thato Khobotle (A woman carrying a cross)
  • Mercy Koetle (Mother)
  • Pheku Lisema (Blind walker)
  • Molibeli Mokake (Butcher)
  • Tsohle Mojati (Blind man)
  • Napo Kalebe (Doris the Beautiful)
  • Sivan Ben Yishai (Narrator)

Crew

Written and Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
Cinematography Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
Editing Mashabushabu Mosese, Arata Mori
Music Guy James Cohen
Sound Design Guy James Cohen
Sound Phillip Leteka
Production Design Jerry Mohlakoana
Costumes Mojera Mojera
Make-Up Molimo o Mocha, Mercy Koetle
Producer Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

World Sales

Stray Dogs

Produced by

Mokoari collective

Photos

Lemohang Mosese

© Ulises Gutierrez

The Berlin-based visual artist and self-taught filmmaker was born in Hlotse, Lesotho. His visual essay Mother, I Am Suffocating, This Is My Last Film About You premiered in the Forum at the Berlinale in 2019 and has been presented at other high-profile festivals and institutions such as MoMA. The following year, he was a member of the Berlinale Shorts jury. His feature film This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection won the Visionary Filmmaking Jury Award at Sundance and more than 30 other awards. His video installations, including “Sculpting God” and “New God”, have been exhibited around the world.

Filmography

2014 Mosonngoa (Mocked One); short film 2015 Behemoth or the Game of God; short documentary 2019 Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You; documentary · This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection 2025 Ancestral Visions of the Future; documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025