OYO premieres long awaited DVD "Salute"

The Ombetja Yehinga Organisation Trust is proud to premiere ‘Salute’ tonight at the Warehouse Theatre.

The Ombetja Yehinga Organisation Trust, OYO, for the past 18 months, did a lot of work in correctional facilities, organizing art workshops with inmates and motivating inmates to go for an HIV test. OYO repeatedly visited facilities. Step by step, inmates started to trust OYO’s workshop leaders and open up, sharing their stories. This was made possible thanks to support from the German Embassy, OSISA and from the Global Fund to fight HIV, TB and malaria.

Based on those testimonies, OYO then had a writing workshop with inmates at the Windhoek Correctional Facility. We didn’t write per se, but role played situations. Inmates used their own language, their own experience. This script is, in many ways, written by inmates themselves. We wanted to keep it as real as possible.

Carlito (Adriano Visagie, winner best male actor in a Theatre Play, NTFA  2017) is a young Namibian man who is sentenced to five years imprisonment because of fraud. Nothing can prepare him for his new life in custody. Naïve, he gets lured in the group of the General (Monray Garoeb), a dangerous criminal who rules over his cell.

This production is an all-Namibian star production, also starring Odile Mulle (winner best female actor in a film, NTFA 2017), Dawie Engelbrecht (winner best male actor in a film at the NTFA 2014), David Ndjavera (winner best male actor in a theatre production, NTFA 2012), Desmond Kamerika, Sakanombo Kasoma, Jeremiah Jeremiah, Dennis !Kharuchab and Bruno Caldeira. It was produced and directed by Philippe Talavera, with Bernd Curschmann as Director of photography, Haiko Boldt as editor (winner best editor at the NTFA 2014) and Wojtek Majewski for the post-production (winner best sound and post-production, NTFA 2107). Ponti Dikuua and Walter Kahivere A.K.A. Le Roi did the sound track, that includes title songs by Jericho and Michael Pulse. A CD of the sound track was also produced.

The event at the warehouse theatre is a red carpet evening where both the DVD and CD were premiered. It was a sold out event.

Salute Event