'Finding Optel' hits screen

QUIRKY: FRESH OFF ITS EUROPEAN FESTIVAL PREMIERE, TEEN SEARCHES FOR DOG

- Citizen reporter

Film Finding Optel premieres on Showmax today, fresh from its European premiere last weekend at the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), billed by Variety as “awards season’s international launch pad”.

Teenager Claire Abrahams runs a lost and found service where she locates anything and everything that has been misplaced.

When Optel, the community dog, goes missing, Claire must confront her brother’s painful disappearance in order to solve her biggest case yet.

Made as part of the Showmax’s first-time director slate to open up the industry in partnership with Joburg Film Festival, Finding Optel is co-directed by 25-year-old Mikayla Joy Brown and her 30-year-old brother Jesse Brown.

LFF describes Finding Optel as “heartwarming ... a quirky detective story that skilfully tackles childhood grief”, while Huisgenoot billed it as “an unmissable jewel”.