MAN WHO STOLE MY MOTHER's FACE, THE

The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face

Australia The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face was a prize-winner at the recent Tribeca Film Festival. It was described by one of the judges, actress Glenn Close, as 'a tremendously important movie for anyone who cares about violence against women and anyone who cares about the viability of a family, and healing as opposed to just hopeless destruction.'

Sydney filmmaker Cathy Henkel investigates the consequences of a traumatic sexual assault on her mother in South Africa. Henkel returns to Johannesburg to confront the man identified by her mother as the attacker and to seek some form of justice. This stark, intimate documentary places the tale of crime, suffering and the search for justice against the backdrop of South Africa's transition from an oppressive apartheid regime to a democratic state. Henkel's 'sobering tale of survival, strength, healing and redemption' (Tribeca Film Festival) is closely connected to the endemic problems of present-day South Africa: economic crisis, explosion of urban violence, gender oppression and the outbreak of AIDS, issues equally as troubling as the nation's tragic and violent past. A compelling and ultimately uplifting documentary.

D/S Cathy Henkel P Jeff Canin, Cathy Henkel WS Hatchling Productions TD Video/Col/2003/58mins

Cathy Henkel's films include: Heroes of Our Time (1991).