Discover 'Sabbatical': a touching tale that redefines success through the heartfelt bond of mother and daughter

“Sabbatical”, a homegrown Mother’s Day movie, hits the big screen on Friday, May 9.

In an interview with writer-director Karabo Lediga and producer Kagiso Lediga, they discussed how the difficult mother-daughter dynamic in their work captivates viewers, immersing them in a world where personal grounding, not wealth, defines success.

The film opens with Lesego (Mona Monyane), a high-flying corporate climber on the cusp of a promotion to CEO at LouwFin. Her life takes a tumultuous turn when she becomes entangled in a financial scandal involving the misappropriation of a miners' pension fund.

As such, she retreats to her childhood home in the township in Pretoria, where she is forced to face the harsh reality of her career being over while being abandoned by so-called friends.

She also has to face her mother Doris (Clementine Mosimane) and the ghosts she’s been running from since leaving for the big city and an opulent lifestyle that left little room for family or friends from the township. 

While dealing with financial ruin as her accounts have been frozen, she dodges the calls from Percy Mthimkhulu (Loyiso Gola), the tenacious investigator on the case.

On what inspired this particular story, Karabo shared: “ I've always found my relationship with my mom, who's quite a huge character in my life, quirky, funny. There's a constant conflict, but there's also a lot of humour between the two of us; kind of a typical mother and daughter relationship in this country, on this continent, at this time.

“She's a huge influence on my life, and I've always thought how interesting it could be to write a narrative around that sort of relationship.”

She hit the jackpot with the casting of the mother and daughter roles in the film. 

“ It was always going to be tricky getting extremely talented actors. I mean, that was the first requirement: extremely talented leads, but who were also convincing as mother and daughter.

“I always had different actors in mind. But when we went to auditions, they (referring to Monyane and Mosimane) were the strongest performers in the auditions for sure.

"They worked convincingly on screen, but  I think a bonus was also what they brought to the table because they also had interesting experiences of mother-daughter relationships that they kind of poured into the project.”

Kagiso weighed in on where his responsibility lay in the project. 

“I guess as a producer we’re an enabler,” he noted. “There’s always the thing of authentic storytelling and quality cinema, and we always try to do these types of movies that will stand the test of time.

“We’ve done movies before and stuff where it took like 18 months of our time, and was it really worth it? And, you know, cinema being quite a difficult place, even to make money, the decision is always to make something that is going to stand the test of time.

“Obviously, it is Karabo’s voice and our part there is always to create a  kind of creative space where she can pour out and finesse the story. You always need  somebody to kind of bounce the ideas off back and forth. 

“It is quite a hectic journey, it costs a lot of money to make a movie and, at any given time, you say, ‘Did I just waste this money on a self-indulgent type of thing?’

“And our part was to say no. This is worth telling, go for it. At any given time, we can say that doesn’t make sense, perhaps you want to add this, perhaps you want to show more of that. That was the extent of it. 

"Obviously, behind the scenes, the financing and packaging and so forth, continues as we go into cinemas and post that.”

There is so much relatability in how Karabo unpacks the story, especially in using body language and nuances as powerful storytelling techniques. 

Karobo nodded in agreement and added, “ I'm always so keen, almost in an addictive way, to kind of capture life in a subtle, nuanced way. And there's a quietness as well in life … So a lot of my work was asking performers to kind of be a little bit more cerebral about the text.

“I wanted a progression of emotions, which was important, because it had to be an emotional journey and an arc.”

Set within a tight-knit community where everyone is privy to each other's lives, the film explores the distinctive connections formed within such an environment. The script incorporates themes of alcohol abuse, casual sexual encounters, and the pressures of hustle culture.

“Sabbatical” doesn’t fall into the trappings of commercial cinema. Instead, it’s a thought-provoking tale of the role a mother plays in your life and how your roots become your moral compass in a world that can be fickle and unforgiving.