After Prague premiere, local Prof's 'UnRest' documentary set for SA launch

UNREST, a powerful new documentary that details the uneasy legacy of human remains discovered at Prestwich Street in Green Point, Cape Town, received its European premiere at Charles University in Prague recently.

- STAFF REPORTER

DR Dominique Wnuczek-Lobaczewski, Dr Bonita Bennett, Ambassador Mosa Sejosingoe, Prof Siona O'Connell, Prof Loretta Feris and Namibia Ginaba

The film was directed by renowned academic, curator and filmmaker Professor Siona O'Connell of the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Humanities.

Following its European debut in October, UnRest is set to make its South African debut on November 22 at the SA Sendinggestig Museum in Cape Town. The Prague screening formed part of the official launch of the Horizon Europe-funded project Colonial Legacies of Universities: Materialities and New Collaborations (COLUMN).

UnRest revisits the moment in 2003 when construction workers uncovered a burial ground believed to contain the remains of enslaved and displaced people from the 18th and 19th centuries. The discovery ignited a heated debate between archaeologists asserting scientific authority and community groups who demanded the remains be treated as ancestors rather than artefacts. O'Connell's film delves into these unresolved tensions, linking them to broader global conversations about institutional accountability and the ethics of remembrance.