*Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions plan to revisit South Africa to film the true story depicting a young African refugee’s journey to the U.S.
Melanie Clark, the company’s head of film production and development, shared details about the project at the Joburg Film Festival, Variety reports.
Clark said Davis and Tennon’s production company is “actively working” on the film titled “The Refugee” with “local partners” in South Africa.
Per Variety, Clark described the project as “the true story of a young Sierra Leonean boy who lost his mother in [the country’s civil war] and found himself alone, because no family would take him in any refugee camp. He felt for some time that his mother was still alive and was determined that he would find her,” she said.
According to the Variety report, the boy was a soccer prodigy discovered by U.N. aid workers in a refugee camp. This led to an invitation to audition for Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy.
“He thought, ‘If I become visible and well-known playing my favorite sport, my mother will see me and we will find each other. And that did, in fact, happen,” Clark added.
Davis’ production company also filmed part of the upcoming movie “G20” in South Africa’s Western Cape because of the “combination of locations that were available,” said Clark.
“We could shoot certain locations that could read as Europe, because we had some European scenes,” she said. “My personal feeling is that I’m not interested in trying to mimic Europe…when we’re shooting in Africa, but for this film, it’s what we needed.”
According to Clark, Davis and Tennon hope to shoot more projects in South Africa.
“Our focus will always be on who, locally, we believe we can be supporting. That’s intentional for us,” she said. “So you’ll see that going forward with us more and more when we are coming back here to shoot, which we intend to do often.”
READ MORE: Viola Davis Pauses Production on ‘G20’ Amid Actors, Writers Strike
