The nights were dark and stormy for many of the days on the five-week call sheet of “Death of a Whistleblower” but although South African director Ian Gabriel personally detests night shoots, he pushed through since his latest conspiracy thriller about cover-ups and a journalist’s dogged pursuit of the truth simply wouldn’t have felt the same shot in sunshine.
“There’s always been a struggle for the truth in South Africa — in the past, and now,” says Gabriel, who also came up with the story.
His taut topical political thriller, produced by Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri for Known Associates Entertainment, will have its African premiere on Feb. 28 at the Joburg Film Festival with a same-day release on Amazon’s Prime Video. Pic premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival last fall.Starring Noxolo Dlamini, Irshaad Ally, Standiwe Kgorore, Deon Coetzee and Kathleen Stephens, the film is a homage to whistleblowers, and follows an investigative journalist who, with the insider help of a whistleblower, tries to expose the state capture of a corrupt South African security group that’s fuelling warfare in Africa and beyond.
