Encounters 2021: The Colonel's Stray Dogs

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters Documentary Film Festival. Always a highlight in our calendar, the festival returns this year with limited physical screenings at The Bioscope from 11-20 June. Tickets are R70. For more information on the festival as a whole, please visit encounters.co.za

THE COLONEL'S STRAY DOGS

Directed by: Khalid Shamis. (South Africa | Libya | United Kingdom). Dur: 1h 13 mins.

With a million-dollar bounty on his head, Ashur Shamis lived for years in Muammar Gadaffi’s crosshairs. A profile of a political activist as well as a portrait of a father and the family worried for decades for his safety, The Colonel’s Stray Dogs sees filmmaker Khalid Shamis return home to explore his father’s role in the Libyan resistance to Colonel Gadaffi’s brutal rule, both in Libya and from exile in London. Through a compelling interplay between archive footage and intimate conversations between father and son, as well as with his family, Shamis uncovers aspects of his father’s work that were kept from him as a child, from assassination attempts to conflicts within the resistance itself, before his transition into one of the foremost commentators on Libyan politics. The film is both a personal journey of discovery for a son and a look into the machinations of liberation, and in its own way, asks questions about the personal cost of activism.

COVID POLICY AND PROCEDURE.

The new Bioscope location is set to be a 47 seater cinema. We are however selling far less in order for there to be space to sit apart from other members of the public. We ask you to please keep your mask on the entire time within the cinema premises. Drinks and snacks will be on sale and can be consumed during the film, but please consider those around you when your mask is off for this. 44 Stanley is largely an open air shopping centre, and The Bioscope has a great outside space directly outside the cinema that public can make use of. Within the cinema, we will also make use of temperature reading, air filtering, and constant cleaning to make sure that The Bioscope remains a safe and hygienic experience.

After purchasing tickets, if you experience any COVID related symptoms, or come into contact with anyone who has tested positive, we ask you to please not attend the screening. Please understand that The Bioscope will not be able to refund you this ticket. We are happy however for you to give your ticket to someone else that can attend. If this is not possible, we would be happy to exchange your ticket for a future screening/event. This can all be coordinated via email at [email protected]