Songs of the Adventurers

A collaborative work by filmmaker Gei Zantzinger and anthropologist David Coplan. Difela combines the tough, earthy language of mining life with unexpected poetic touches, sung out in a flowing chant. Outside of Lesotho, few knew of its existence. Inside Lesotho, difela was shunned by black and white elites who considered it low class, vulgar and backward. But taken on its own terms, difela is raw beauty in the face of abject misery, infused with startling imagery and vibrant execution that illuminates the suffering and bitterness behind it. The film looks at other musics of Lesotho, in both individual and group performances. It also looks at the impact of this life on the women left behind at home, as well as the women who entertain the miners in bars: their fears, uncertainties, and a poverty that engulfs them, the choices they must make.