Although Namibia provided locations for two major Oscar-winning films — 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1969 winner for best visual effects, and Mad Max: Fury Road, the 2016 winner for best editing, costume design, makeup and hairstyling, sound mixing and sound editing, and production design — the southern African country’s film industry is still a burgeoning one. This year, Namibia has submitted its first entry for the Oscars’ best international feature category: Under the Hanging Tree, written, directed and produced by Perivi Katjavivi.
Set in present-day Namibia, Katjavivi’s third feature film follows Christina Mureti (Girley Jazama), a police officer called to investigate a murder in a small village where the descendants of the country’s original German settlers still farm the land. The victim is a German farmer, whose body is…