Staff writer
A FILM co-produced by Fugard Theatre founder Eric Abraham has won an Oscar for best foreign language film at the 87th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
The movie Ida is the second Academy Award for Abraham after he won the golden statuette for his film Kolya in 1996.
Ida is a black-and-white film directed by Pawel Pawlikowski and written by him and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It has earned Pawlikowski his first Oscar and is the first Polish foreign language film to win the coveted prize.
A delighted Abraham said from Los Angeles: “It’s wonderful when the underdog triumphs. A small short black-and-white film in Polish about two women who go on a road trip to learn about who they are and where they come from, Ida seems to have touched people across the barriers of language and culture in over 30 countries so far and restores my faith in the appetite for films that make us think and feel about the human condition. South Africa has so many such stories waiting to be told on film.”
The Fugard Theatre will be the first in Africa to screen Ida. It will be shown on March 21 at 7.30pm.