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A grand, desolate expanse of hessian-rough desert, subject to unforgiving seasonal extremes of heat and ice, and whose scattered residents have mostly learned to live hard and die harder, South Africa’s Great Karoo is a region that really ought to have housed a thousand horse operas by now. It hasn’t, but an ambitious new generation of filmmakers is catching up to its possibilities. That atmospheric backdrop was the best thing last year’s overworked, Oscar-submitted period adventure “Sew the Winter to My Skin” had going for it; leaner, meaner and altogether more exciting is “Flatland,” an exhilarating fusion of contemporary western, policier and girls-gone-wild road movie that kicked off this year’s Berlinale Panorama program with a wallop.

The third feature from distinctively voiced writer-director Jenna Bass — who also co-wrote last year’s Kenyan Cannes headline-grabber “Rafiki” — “Flatland” represents something of a feminist milestone for a national cinema...

"Poppie, you know what we're doing is dangerous?" In the midst of the winter film festival season, take a look at this stylistic drama arriving later this year. The Match Factory has debuted an international / promo trailer for an indie titled Flatland, the latest feature film directed by Jenna Bass. This "contemporary western" is about the journey of self-discovery for three different but equally trapped women. It paints a vivid and unique portrait of femininity against a hostile frontier land and questions what it means to be a woman today in South Africa and the world at large. Faith Baloyi stars as Beauty Cuba, and a cast including Nicole Fortuin, Izel Bezuidenhout, Brendon Daniels, and De Klerk Oelofse. The film features a number of different languages, including English, following these three different women. This looks like something die-hard cinephiles will love, with some crazy footage thrown in. Here's the official...