You're My Favourite Place

You’re My Favourite Place is a 2022 South African coming-of-age road film written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jahmil X. T. Qubeka. It follows four friends on their last day of school as they embark on a trip to a remote landmark where, according to Xhosa legend, one can communicate with the dead.^[1]

In his director's statement, Qubeka described the film, his fifth feature overall, as a “return to my home town to examine the reality of youth fighting to redefine themselves amidst the flux of our current dispensation.”^[2]

The film stars Tumie Ngumla, Awethu Hleli, Niza Jay, and Khayakazi Kula. The troubled quartet comes to show the tender side of the teenage experience as they help each other confront the questions that plague them – problems of gender identity, the consequences of unprotected sex, and sexual abuse.

On their last day of high school, four troubled teenagers from the East London township of Duncan Village embark on a road trip in a stolen taxi, bound for “Hole in the Wall,” a coastal landmark on South Africa's Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape Province, where Nelisa Vena hopes to talk to the spirit of her dead sister.^[2]

Along the way, they encounter a smooth-tongued outlaw who manoeuvres his way into their trip, and an old woman, who cajoles them into taking a mind-altering drug that induces hallucination. It's not long before the trip, through which they hoped to commemorate their forthcoming entry into adulthood, quickly takes a turn for the worse as plans derail, and it descends into a perniciously thrilling adventure.^[3]

• Tumie Ngumla as Nelisa
• Awethu Hleli as Tiny
• Niza Jay as Zongi
• Khayakazi Kula as Cwaita
• Athenkosi Mfamela
• Chuma Sopotela as Constable Vena
• Mary Twala

It was announced that You’re My Favourite Place would premiere at the 43rd edition of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), where it would be the festival's closing film. With the festival held under the theme “Adaptation, Survival and Sustainability,” it, along with the opening film, 1960, was hand-selected by the festival organisers to reflect just that.^[4]

"DIFF will always remain my first home as a filmmaker: A refuge for the artistic voices of cinema in South Africa and on the continent. DIFF is a space that truly embodies the celebration of South African film."

The closing night of the festival was hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts within the College of Humanities of the University of KwaZulu-Natal at the Suncoast CineCentre, Durban North. On the evening of July 30, 2022, the film was screened.^[5]

• You're My Favourite Place at IMDb