Farewell Ella Bella

For Ella, the death of her alcoholic father saddles her with nothing but debt and the bitter memory of a complicated past. Abandoned by her mother at a young age, she has sacrificed her life, career opportunities and love to care for a man she resents, leaving her adrift in the world after his passing. The re-emergence at her father’s cremation of her nomadic yet charming musician godfather, Neo, gives Ella the opportunity to rediscover her identity by deserting the suffocating and constricting life she has led in the small town of Beaufort West. She decides that she will bury his ashes at her childhood home in Johannesburg and that Neo will be responsible for taking her there. The two set out in his beloved old BMW and traverse the Karoo desert, all the while meeting various colorful characters who give Ella and Neo insight into themselves and each other. (Pan African Film Festival)