Mma Ramotswe set changes the face of Kgale View

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Correspondent | Thursday July 26, 2007 00:00

 

The additional structure at Kgale view happens to be a movie set for the on going production of the No.1 Lady's Detective Agency. The kgale view set is a reconstruction of the old African mall in Gaborone.

Before new structures took over, the African mall used to be the face of Gaborone; the centre for merchandise and that picture is being recreated in this scene. You see here and there a tailor busy sewing clothes, a cobbler mending shoes, a small 'semausu', or tuck shop, selling oranges. Street vendors are fairly well represented, with selling the wares, including oranges from an old Toyota Hilux van.

 
Unless invited to tour the facility, it is almost impossible to get closer. There are police cars just before you approach the set, and officers do not want anyone to get any nearer and cause unnecessary disturbances. 'Nobody is allowed to enter or park here because cameramen are shooting the film - this is a filming zone,' a police officer tells us as we begin our tour of the set. It is a hive of activity, reminiscent of a busy market place. The set is a mixture of the old and the new as you could see vendors trading in public cell phones and airtime. Though made out of prefabricated material the buildings look strong you would think they have been there for a long time.

Inside the shops are well stocked with anything you can think of, whether it is a butchery, a bottle store, a super market, everything is so detailed.    According to publicist Joy Sapieka, the set was constructed in seven weeks. ' It was all bushy here before all these', she says as she showed us around yesterday. She says in order to capture the mood of the old African mall life; they have been exchanging new items, such as bicycles, television sets, blankets, and wheelbarrows, for old ones.

' We would see people at locations like Old Naledi pushing an old wheelbarrow, or having old blankets, and bicycles, and we would take them and give them new ones,' said Sapieka. Some of the old items would later be used during bus scenes, as passengers take them along as luggage, she said.

It is a busy day at the set as we arrive at a time when the filming is in progress. When we arrived South African actor Desmond Dube had just started acting his part as an hairdresser at B.K. Hairdresser.  In the movie this hair salon character becomes Precious Ramotswe's friend, according to Sapieka.

 
' The character at the salon does not appear in the book, we just added the scene', said the publicist. The movie director Anthony Minghella, wearing a cap and sunglasses, appears briefly with a wide smile. He is sweating and looking exhausted as he tells us how delighted he is to be working on the movie.

However, his work soon begins and he excuses himself to attend to the filming of the scene that involves Dube, the hairdresser.
We also see local female rapper, Ice Queen or Desma Basson, well dressed in a late 70s attire. She is fat and round and keeps Afro. Sapieka tells us that Jill Scott, who plays Mma Ramotswe, was not present because she had taken a break after working the whole morning. ' She had been shooting her scenes since 6am, and she is very tired, she has gone to have a rest,' Sapieka said.