VULTURES
Dian Weys
Netherlands / South Africa
At the scene of a car accident, a hot-headed yet desperate tow truck driver fiercely protects his tow from rivals and looters. Meanwhile, a pedestrian is dying.
SYNOPSIS
Paul is a hot-headed tow truck driver working in a territorial and ruthless towing industry. Struggling to make ends meet, he is elated when he is the first to arrive at a grisly car accident. After calming those injured, informing the authorities, and securing the insurance policy, he fiercely protects his tow by restraining fleeing drivers, fending off looters, and clashing with competing towing companies, all the while unaware that, further down the road, a pedestrian is dying.
INTENTION
Since South Africa has one of the highest motor vehicle accident rates in the world, tow truck drivers wait for crashes to happen so that they can swoop down and tow the wrecks away. Having been in three accidents myself, it feels as if towing companies descend on you like vultures. There is a tension here however, since tow truck drivers try to make ends meet in a country where a third of its residents are unemployed. While pursuits of well-being play out in extreme ways when a nation is dangerously close to becoming a failed state, this desire is also embedded in our global capitalist and neo-liberal societies. At what point do our hyper-individual ethics blind us to the needs of others? Vultures interrogates how a narrow focus on ourselves can become a form of negligence: a level of care that fails to extend past the boundaries of our self-preservation projects. By looking at a cross-section of characters that practice different forms thereof in a pressure cooker situation, this short film deals with perspectives of self-interest and the narrowness thereof, violence and our implications therein, negligence and the responsibilities attached thereto.
DIRECTOR
Dian Weys
Dian Weys is a filmmaker based in Cape Town. He has written and directed three TV movies and three short films which have screened at festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Tampere, ZINEBI, and Message to Man. He is currently a PhD candidate in Film Studies at the University of Groningen (NL) and lectures part-time at Stellenbosch University (SA).
PRODUCER
Le Roux Fourie
Le Roux Fourie is a South African film producer based in the Netherlands. His shorts have screened at several festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand. With a Masters Degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, he also works as a Strategy and Design Consultant in a global creative agency that manages and delivers international projects across various industries.
Genre
Thriller
Length
15 min
Language
Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa
Shooting location
Cape Town, South Africa
Production company
Electronic Roof (South Africa)
Estimated budget
€77.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Funding