Rona

RONA

Single-channel video, 50 min., color, sound
Various languages with English subtitles
2026 (ZAF, GER)

A film by:
Gaby Saranouffi, deufert&plischke, Moeketsi Koena and Thabiso Heccius Pule

RONA (Sesotho: together / we) explores, in cooperation with the South African artists Gaby Saranouffi and Moeketsi Koena, the powerful connection between everyday life, dance, music, and community work in South Africa. Produced collectively, the film portrays—against the backdrop of poverty and gender-based violence—particularly the voices of women and children in Johannesburg.

In December, the befriended artists came together in Soweto and Yeoville to collaboratively realize the community performance project Ballroom Bliss. Alongside this on-site collaboration, a nearly one-hour film emerged, portraying the interweaving of dance, music, and spiritual practices in three very different locations in Johannesburg. In doing so, the film connects the city’s unique history with the question of the position of contemporary art within the ongoing negotiation of cultural traditions and the resistances…