Helmhart: a spooky short film with a dash of romance
Actress Zenobia Kloppers and her business partner at MoZe Films, Monique Seigels, add a new genre to the Silwerskerm Film Festival this year. They created the festival’s first-ever ghost story and Gothic romance, a short film entitled Helmhart.
At the 2019 Silwerskerm Film Festival, Zenobia enthralled audiences with her portrayal of the iconic Dalene Matthee character Fiela Koemoetie in the feature film Fiela se kind. Now, she moves into the director’s chair to tell a story that has kept her mesmerised for many years.
Zenobia’s mother, Alfreda Kloppers (née Sonn), was a young nurse working at a hospital in Cape Town in the 1960s. Being on night shift duty in this hospital was not for the faint-hearted. Doors slammed. Lights flickered inexplicably. Medicine bottles rattled on the shelves. Pages from patient files fluttered around. Not to mention the eerie knocking sounds in the hallway.
The young Alfreda was not born en caul, but one of her colleagues was …
And so the scene is set for the ghost story with a dash of romance which Alfreda told Zenobia and her siblings and now lives on in Helmhart.
In honour of her mom and her dad, Zenobia and her co-writer, Monique, decided to give Helmhart’s main characters her parents’ middle names.
The role of Ragel is played by Vashti Prins (Suidooster), and Clifford Joshua Young (Daryn’s Gym) is John.
“I was hoping to find someone for the lead role who reminded me of my mother as a young woman,” Zenobia says. “Vashti’s audition blew me away, and Clifford brought all the charm you’d expect from John.”
Helmhart was filmed at a real, fully-operational hospital in Cape Town, and during the crew’s first night on set, the fire alarm went off for no reason. One can’t help but wonder if …
This spooky short film premières at the festival on Wednesday, 23 August at 10:00. Helmhart will be screened on kykNET soon after the festival and from there it will move to Showmax.