Search Film, Company, People...

FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES

By Michael MATTHEWS

Western - Completed 2014

Once the young ‘Five Fingers’ fought brutal oppression for the rural town of Marseilles. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, freedom-fighter-turned-‘outlaw’ Tau returns, seeking only peace. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it. Will the Five Fingers ride again?

- Year of production
- 2014
- Genres
- Western, Thriller
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Languages
- Other, ENGLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 110 mn
- Director(s)
- Michael MATTHEWS
- Writer(s)
- Sean DRUMMOND
- Cast
- Fana MOKOENA, Jerry MOFOKENG, Mduduzi MABASO, Mothusi MAGANO, Vuyo DABULA, Zikhona SODLAKA
- Producer(s)
- Michael MATTHEWS (Be Phat Motel), Sean DRUMMOND (Be Phat Motel), Yaron SCHWARTZMAN (Game 7 Films), Asger HUSSAIN (Game 7 Films)
- Synopsis
- The 1980s: The community of Railway, attached to the remote South African town of Marseilles, are the victims of brutal police oppression and only the young ‘Five Fingers’ will stand up to them. Their battle is heartfelt but innocent, until hot-headed Tau kills three policemen in an act of passion. He flees Marseilles, fearing for his life, but his action has triggered what will become a violent war between the police and his remaining Five Finger brothers. And his action has affected them all deeply…
  Twenty years later, Tau is released from a Johannesburg prison. He has become a feared and brutal gang leader, but scarred and empty inside he renounces violence and returns to the community of his childhood desiring only a peaceful life. In a new South Africa, Marseilles is indeed free, but to his dismay Tau finds that rather than the haven he hoped for, the town is a community now caught in the grip of cross-border gangs and corruption.
  Struggling to reconcile with his bitter past, he can keep his head down only so long. When violence spills into his own life he is reluctantly compelled to act. Railway and Marseilles need a champion to fight for their freedom once and for all. Calling in old prison-mates and with new blood at his side, Tau forms a new Five Fingers, standing against old friends and new enemies alike in a thrilling escalation of battle.
  Finally, with redemption at stake, Tau must venture into the open plains in a final showdown with his childhood allies. Can he vanquish his demons before he lays his guns down once and for all? Will any of the original Five Fingers return to Marseilles, or do they all need to fall in the wilderness for the town truly to be free?
  ‘Five Fingers for Marseilles’ fuses western influences, from classic Ford-era through Spaghetti and revisionist eras, into a contemporary South African crime drama played in local tongue. The great westerns have always contained socio-political threads, and Five Fingers’ loose allegory on current SA politics is deep, dark, edge-of-the-seat, and starkly human.
- Partners & financing
- COMMITTED - $900,000
  REQUIRED - $300,000
- Beginning of shooting
- Jun 01, 2014