The world is his stage
Twelve-year-old local actor, Alejandro Cooper, has been nominated for Best Young Actor at the 2024 Sotigui Awards for his role in Philippe Talavera's film Lukas.Cooper was nominated along with Seydou Saar from Senegal (for his role in Matteo Garone's Moi, Capitaine) and Ambjulla Ilboudo from Burkina Faso (for her role in Christian Lara's I'homme au baton).
Talavera said in a statement that this is the first time that a Namibian has been nominated in this category and is also Namibia's only Sotigui nomination this year. This is the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation's (OYO) second Sotigui nomination after Adriano Visagie won the Sotigui Award for Best Actor for Southern Africa in 2019 for his role in Salute!.
Lukas follows the life of a boy who has lived on the streets for 15 years. This role is played jointly by Cooper, Hernandes Goanatgosi and Treazurique Titus.
The film is based on interviews conducted with 17 children and young people who live on the streets and four young people who have clashed with authorities because of their lives on the streets. It highlights the difficult reality of street children and questions how society fails and sometimes even exploits street children.
Lukas was the first Namibian movie to be screened for three weeks in cinemas at Ster-Kinekor in Namibia and for two weeks at Ster-Kinekor in South Africa. The film has since been nominated at film festivals in Nigeria, Egypt, Italy and the USA.
"This nomination is a great victory for Namibia," says Talavera. "We have so much incredible talent in this country. We must learn at a young age to discover such talents and, more importantly, to hone them.
“If we don't deliver enough local content, actors like Alejandro, who are incredibly promising, won't be able to grow in the industry. We need to support local talents," he said.
The Sotigui Awards are held annually in Burkina Faso to recognise talent from the African continent. - [email protected]