Dallas, USA. Actor Donald Molosi has been nominated for a Best Actor Award at the African Film Festival 2021 in the United States. Molosi was nominated for his latest role in the short film, “Test Your Love, Too.”
In the film, Molosi portrays a young man struggling to stay happy in a marriage. The 35-year old actor says he decided to translate most of his lines in the script into Setswana, “because in my 20-year old career, I have never been allowed to speak Setswana on film and I think that is ridiculous,” he explains. “I had to question that and swiftly counter it as an emerging norm for my presence on film.”
Molosi was nominated alongside four other actors from around the world. He has previously won more than 25 acting awards in his 10-year career off-Broadway in New York. Molosi says this nomination carries sentimental meaning to him. “I am deeply grateful.
“Botswana and the United States are my two homes that have shaped me as a human being. So for me to do my first Botswana-produced film and for it to have audience in the US feels like a lovely family hug for my sense of self,” he said in an interview from London where he is currently curating a festival on the West End.
“Test Your Love, Too” was written and directed by Jenny Ledikwe. The film was shot in Mogoditshane and Gaborone in 2020. Molosi plays the lead character with a strong supporting cast that includes Kgomotso Tshwenyego (A United Kingdom), Malope Joe Matome (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency), Merciah Bonolo Moletsane and Poloko Gladys Morobolo.
Says Molosi of the experience: “This was my first time doing a Botswana-produced film and I learnt a great deal about how a Botswana-produced film set functions differently from Hollywood, for example. Although my previous films were filmed in Botswana, they were not Botswana-produced films. Doing this film made me re-think my career and what I want it to look like when I am in the past.”
In the film, Molosi plays Mpho, a young man in his late 20s who recently got married. The character of Mpho’s wife, Masego, is played by Merciah Bonolo Moletsane. When the couple encounters a challenge early in their marriage, the drama begins to unfold. This leads Molosi’s character into a dark place where he abuses alcohol to cope.
The day after his award nominations were announced last week, Molosi said of his new role: “I loved playing Mpho. I did not define him by his alcohol problem, of course, because people are more complicated than their challenges. I respected that he woke up every day and tried his best. I also enjoyed doing a non-commercial film, a work of edutainment. It makes you let go of artistic perfection and focus on impact.”
The awards ceremony will be held virtually on 5 June 2021. This has given Molosi and opportunity to let it be known that he has a date for the virtual ceremony. “Kgomotso Tshwenyego agreed to be my date,” he told Time Out. “So we will be showing up together at the award ceremony this weekend.”
The African Film Festival Awards will be held in Dallas, Texas in the United States this weekend. They will be livestreamed around the world and also through the RootFlix app.
Donald Molosi nominated for Best Actor Award in US
