“It’s Lit” premieres on Freedom Day, offering a surreal reflection of youth in South Africa.

In a collapsing country, the older generation clings to comfort and denial – leaving South African youth to survive a world they didn’t break.

Debuting on Freedom Day at The Bioscope Independent Cinema, It’s Lit is a compelling South African short film executive produced by poet, Les Makotoko and directed by Hallie Haller with Gugu Radebe Xaba serving as producer. The film offers an unflinching reflection on what it means to come of age in a post-apartheid South Africa shaped by deferred dreams and broken promises.

Brought to life on screen through the creative collaboration of the three, the film translates the poetic vision into a surreal cinematic experience that captures the emotional and psychological reality of youth navigating unemployment, inequality, violence, and systemic collapse.

Blending poetry, symbolism, and emotionally resonant surreal imagery, Director Hallie Haller moves It’s Lit beyond traditional storytelling to express the lived experience of a generation that has inherited a country in quiet decline. Familiar South African realities – power outages, protests, crime, and infrastructure decline – are reimagined through surrealism, turning everyday dysfunction into moments of confrontation and reckoning.

“It’s Lit is an address to the reality young people have inherited in post-Apartheid South Africa – where national dreams were deferred, promises were broken, and the social contract collapsed,” says Les Makotoko, Executive Producer and Poet. “We were told that education would protect us, but that promise wasn’t kept. Yet despite this, young people continue to create, resist, and save themselves. I wrote this for those who did everything right and still found it wasn’t enough – to remind them that there is still hope.”

Framing the film is Makotoko’s poetic narration. The poem acts as a guiding voice – warning, questioning, and provoking audiences while encouraging young people to imagine new futures. The film leaves viewers with its central unresolved question: where are the children headed?

Director Hallie Haller adds, “Les’s poem was the start of everything. There is an urgency to the message that needed to come across in the film. In collaborating, we really wanted to interrogate what we’ve all come to accept as normal. And this nightmare imagery felt like the most compelling way to do that.”

“We’ve become desensitised to the dysfunction around us. This film employs surrealism to make us feel it again – the suffocation of youth fighting for the freedom they were promised.”

The Freedom Day premiere offered a timely moment to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a country where many young South Africans remain excluded from opportunity despite their efforts to empower themselves. The screening brought together creatives, cultural commentators, and youth voices, fostering dialogue around generational responsibility, resistance, and the role of culture as a survival tool.

Following its debut, It’s Lit will be screened on digital platforms, at cultural venues, and in community spaces nationwide, broadening the conversation and grounding it in the lived experiences of South African youth.

About It’s Lit

It’s Lit is a South African short film executive produced and narrated by poet Les Makotoko, and directed by Hallie Haller, with production by Gugu Radebe Xaba. Set in a country in quiet collapse, the film follows three children left to navigate the consequences of a world shaped by an older generation clinging to power, comfort, and denial. As the youth confront unemployment, decay, and disillusionment, a quiet rebellion begins to stir – suggesting that survival alone is no longer enough. Anchored by Makotoko’s poetic narration, It’s Lit interrogates what becomes of a generation for whom the promise of freedom has failed, ultimately posing the question: where are the children going?

Awande Motsohi
awanded21@gmail.com
076 786 4850