Source Unknown – Thursday 1st July, 2004

Principal photography has commenced in Swaziland on Wah-Wah, Richard E. Grant’s semi-autobiographical writing and directing debut film which is about growing up in Swaziland during British colonial rule. The film features a top-notch English cast including Gabriel Byrne and double Oscar-nominated actresses Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, and Julie Walters in lead roles. Nicholas Hoult plays the juvenile lead.

There is a strong South African supporting cast, including John Matshikiza, Michael Richard, Ian Roberts, Clare Marshall and Caroline Smart from Durban.

Wah-Wah is a coming-of-age at the end-of-an-age story set during the last gasp of the British Empire in the run-up to independence in Swaziland at the tail end of the sixties. Told from a 14-year-old boy’s point of view, it focuses on a dysfunctional family whose gradual disintegration mirrors the dismantling of colonial rule.

The time-warped isolation of the colonial community has created an incestuous, all- knowing, all- seeing society where every effort is made to maintain an outward show of normality.

In sharp contrast, independence prompts an outpouring of jubilation from the liberated Africans.

King Mswati III has given his Royal seal of approval for the film to be shot entirely on location in Swaziland with full government support and co-operation.