The Akin Omotosho directed film ‘Man On Ground’ has been selected to have its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival due to be held from the 8th-18th of September 2011. ‘Man On Ground’ will be showcased in the Contemporary World Cinema category and will screened on the 12th, 13th and 17th of September.

TIFF describes ‘Man On Ground’ as follows:

‘A bold and exacting portrayal of rising xenophobia in South Africa. Omotoso casts the story of a young Nigerian man living in the African refugee tenements of Johannesburg who disappears against the backdrop of animosity against immigrants flaring into violent rioting. In the span of a single night, his brother, on a short visit from London, tries to elucidate the mystery’.

The movie was motivated by events started on the evening of Sunday 11th May 2008, when a gang of young men in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township forced their way into a hostel on London Road and initiated a merciless attack on residents they deemed to be foreigners. From this spark, the murder, rape, and looting directed at the bodies and belongings of non-South Africans spread within days from Alexandra to informal settlements in Diepsloot and the East Rand, where a Mozambican man, Ernesto Nhamuavhe was burned alive while bystanders laughed. Known to the world as ‘The Burning Man’, Ernesto Nhamuavhe, a husband and a father, is the primary inspiration for 'Man On Ground'.

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