The South African feature film Carissa, directed by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar in their feature debut, had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 in the prestigious Orizzonti section. It went on to screen at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California, the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, and other screenings abroad.
Set in the remote village of Wupperthal in the Cederberg mountains, Carissa tells the story of an ordinary young woman who finds herself at a crossroads. Her grandmother pressures her to sign up for the new golf estate company promising community training and employment. But she gets into trouble and escapes to the mountain where her estranged grandfather is one of the sole rooibos farmers left. Will she sign up for training and employment or risk losing access to parts of herself she only knew existed up until now?
The film was made over six years in close collaboration with local residents, many of whom appear alongside professional actors. Its focus on language, culture, and identity places it in a wider movement in the Western and Northern Cape, where Indigenous and First Peoples – including Khoe and San descendants – are reclaiming their heritage, language, and land after centuries of erasure.
The setting is central to the film. Wupperthal and the broader Cederberge are home to a distinct cultural identity shaped by language and tradition. The Afrikaans spoken in the region is celebrated and is seldom heard on screen.Rooibos, which grows only in the Cederberg and parts of the Northern Cape, is another defining feature of the area. Known internationally as South Africa’s red bush tea, it remains central to local identity and livelihoods, and in Carissa it forms part of the story of land and communities under pressure.
The landscape has also influenced South African literature and art. Wupperthal is home to the oldest shoe factory and takes pride in making shoes for legendary historical figures like Nelson Mandela. The community leaders from Wupperthal, like Barend Salomo and Edgar Valentyn, are leaders in the rooibos manufacturing which reaches the world over. The mountain rocks and caves in the region carry rich art of the indigenous peoples who wrote their own stories as rock art. These ancient voices, both human and non-human, resonate throughout Carissa’s journey. Overseas critics have praised Carissa for its measured emotions and sense of place. Variety called the film “simultaneously still and transporting…rich with feeling for the callused hands and hearts of an overlooked but industrious countryside population.”
Loud and Clear Reviews lauded it as “stunning, thematically and visually, and authentically embraces the place and the people it centres.”
Magical realism as worldview
The film is shot through with elements of magical realism and layered symbolism, playing with boundaries, where interior and exterior overlap.
“Magical realism is part of my identity,” Jacobs says. “It’s how I make sense of the world, of the things that are not always seen. It’s finding magic in moments not usually called magic, like a bird flying into your dream and trusting the truth of the message.” For him, it links storytelling to healing and continues a legacy in African storytelling where the ordinary and the spiritual are connected.
The film includes a scene set in a mountain cave with centuries old rock art – among the oldest cultural records in southern Africa – covering the walls. Jacobs describes these encounters as “portals into discovering parts of yourself you didn’t know were lost.”
Both directors describe the process of making Carissa as one of healing – for themselves, for the community, and for audiences. “Storytelling is my practice as a natural healer,” Jacobs says. “My role is to make stories that give local and international audiences opportunities to reflect on the threats to native people around the world, to perhaps leave the cinema with a different perspective.”
Although Carissa becomes cognisant of other ways of being, Delmar says the narrative is never detached from the real world. “Is Carissa held back by responsibility? There’s no easy answer. It’s that complex conflict between aspiration and constraint that makes the story authentic. The choice she makes in the end speaks of her self-discovery and growth as a character and is powerful in its own right.”
“One of the most powerful moments for me was screening Carissa in Wupperthal,” says producer Annemarie du Plessis. “People saw themselves, their way of life on screen and there was an enormous sense of pride and joy. That reaction was as meaningful as any festival showing, because it confirmed the film belongs to the community first.”
“What matters most to me is that our stories and our history are as powerful and relevant as those from anywhere else,” adds producer Deidré Jantjies. “Throughout the making of the film, we worked as a team to create spaces for people to express themselves freely. Everyone had a voice. For me it has been about empowerment, not just through this film but for other projects that will come after it.”
For Jantjies, the film’s achievement is showing that local films can resonate far beyond their immediate setting. “It was beautiful to see people who didn’t know us, didn’t know our world, respond with appreciation,” she says. “It shows the value of South African stories. They are not only ours – they can speak to the world.”
The film was shot on location in Wupperthal with a cast that combines professional actors and local community members as part of the ensemble. Gretchen Ramsden (Toorbos, Bergie) enchants audiences in the title role of Carissa, alongside Wilhelmiena Hesselman and Hendrik Kriel, as her grandparents. Elton Landrew, a veteran of South African stage and screen, appears as Carissa’s father, while newcomer Gladwin van Niekerk carries a strong supporting role as her only friend. “We wanted to tell a story that was authentic to the place and people we were working with,” said co-director Jason Jacobs. “Making Carissa was a collaborative process with the Wupperthal community whose experiences and perspectives are central to its narrative. Now we’re looking forward to seeing how South African audiences respond.”
“The film explores questions of identity, belonging and purpose,” Delmar added. “These are not just rural themes. They speak to young South Africans everywhere who are trying to find their way.”
Carissa’s visual style has been widely praised, with cinematographer Gray Kotzé capturing both the vast landscapes of the Cederberg and the intimate details of village life. The score, composed by Frazer Barry, Mikhaila Alyssa Smith and Delmar, blends traditional influences with contemporary sound.
The film was developed over six years, supported by programmes such as the Durban FilmMart and Oxbelly Screenwriters & Directors Lab in Greece. An early version of the project was presented at the Venice International Film Festival’s “Final Cut” workshop, where it won several awards, including the Venice Biennale Prize for post-production.
At the 2025 Silwerskerm Awards in Cape Town, Carissa received nominations for Best Actress (Ramsden), Best Supporting Actress (Hesselman), Best Supporting Actor (Landrew), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Original Score.
“Carissa proves that South African cinema can hold its own internationally,” said producer Deidré Jantjies. “Our stories are just as powerful and relevant as those from anywhere else. They speak to universal themes, while also showing the richness of our own history and culture.”
The film is distributed locally by Indigenous Film Distribution and Development.
Jason Jacobs is a multi-award-winning South African writer-director whose work spans theatre, film, and poetry, often rooted in his Namaqua heritage. He emerged as a distinctive voice in the performing arts with a trilogy of debut works that earned him the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival New Voices Award in 2017. Jacobs co-founded the Khardoeksies youth drama group in his hometown of Kharkams, nurturing local storytelling talent. His creative practice blends cultural preservation with contemporary narrative forms, as seen in his translation of Womb of Fire into Brandbaar and his production of Maroon at the Iziko Slave Lodge. During the pandemic, he developed an online writing course with SWEAT, which evolved into the live play COVID Waarheid. His short film Nama Swaan premiered at Silwerskermfees and now streams on Showmax. Jacobs is currently completing a master’s degree in Theatre and Performance at UCT, where his research explores somatic approaches to shame and memory in Afrikaans theatre.
Devon Delmar is a South African filmmaker, writer, and composer whose work often explores consciousness, tradition, and the non-human through a deeply local lens. He co-directs projects under the KRAAL collective alongside Jason Jacobs, with whom he shares a commitment to community-rooted storytelling. Delmar’s filmography includes Under the Static (2016), Glasya’s Heresy – Dispel (2020), and the acclaimed feature Carissa (2024), which premiered in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival. His work has been showcased at Durban FilmMart, Gotham Film Week, IFFR CineMart, and the Final Cut lab in Venice, where Carissa won multiple awards. Delmar’s creative ethos centres on representing underseen communities and challenging conventional narratives, often integrating themes of modernity versus tradition. He is also a fellow of the Oxbelly Screenwriters & Directors Lab and has contributed to theatre and animation projects that reflect his multidisciplinary approach.
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