A student Afrikaans short that turns Drakensberg vistas into a bleak, period world.
Co‑directors Leandros Braounos and Daniel Howells shape a slow, atmospheric short—shot in the Drakensberg, graded for 16mm texture and scored by Braam du Toit.
Play · vimeoLeandros Braounos and Daniel Howells are a directing duo worth knowing. According to Directors Notes, their student short Winter Slaap (Hibernation) is an Afrikaans period piece that places two sisters at the centre of a collapsing world, using sparse storytelling and slow cinema to do most of the heavy lifting.
The film was shot in South Africa’s Drakensberg region and leans on a deliberately monochrome look. "Deciding to shoot in black and white was one of our very first creative choices," Braounos told Directors Notes. The team worked with art director and colourist Chloe Iacovou to emulate the texture of 16mm on a tight budget, using high‑contrast lighting and meticulous digital grading to make the landscape read as cold and dying.
Casting mixes trained actors and non‑professionals: Sam Faure plays Magda and Zonya Swart was cast as Elna after an open call, the site reports. Composer Braam du Toit provided a score built from period‑accurate instruments and local tonalities so the music feels like "the voice of the landscape itself," in the directors’ words.
"We completely underestimated how brutal and unpredictable shooting in a remote location could be; at certain points, the logistical pressures were so intense that we genuinely felt we had failed and wouldn’t be able to finish." — Braounos, to Directors Notes
Directors Notes describes a shoot that surrendered to weather and practical limits: torrential rain, a stuck generator and sudden rewrites. Those difficulties, they say, yielded some of the film’s most striking moments.
Read the full interview on Directors Notes for more production detail and the directors’ thoughts on slow cinema: directorsnotes.com.
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