Seconds (Liese Kuhn) South Africa. Official Section |

Seconds
Liese Kuhn
South Africa. 2023. 90 min

SECONDS follows the story of Seconds Khumalo, an ageing boxer from the EastRand of Johannesburg. The Van Tonder family, whose property he lives on, andfor whom he boxes — begin to grow suspicious as years of unanswered questionsand traumas start to surface. Seconds has always trained under Pa Van Tonder, working for the family butchery in the mornings, but things start to go sour as Pa feels threatened by Seconds son, Lukas Khumalo, a budding politician.
The final count down reveals a web of lies, deceit and betrayal — an illegitimate son, an underground exploitative boxing syndicate and a dark angel called Bambi. It is time for Seconds to claim back what is rightfully his; HIS FAMILY AND HIS LIFE.

LIESE KUHN

In 2016 Liese graduated cum laude from AFDA Cape Town. She continued to undergo scriptwriting training with Tracey-Lee Rainers, Ayanda Hilmana, Vicki Bawcombe and Matthew Kalil. In 2019, as part of 1 of fifteen women selected for the NFVF Female Filmmakers Program she furthered her directing training under the guidance of Lwazi Mvusi and went on to direct her short film TWELVE which made official selection at the Garden Route International Film Festival. In 2020 Liese was selected for the Durban Talents in co-operation with Berlinale Talents Program for afeature-length script she wrote titled Extravagant Ways To Say Goodbye. Mentored along by Kethiwe Ngcobo and picked up by Carolyn Carew of Free Women Films. The script awarded Liese a scholarship to Sundance for script revision with Naomi Foner and Visual Directing with former chair of AFI Bill Dill. Liese has written for 2 seasons of a newly released Showmax show TROUKOORS produced by Infinity Films and was one of 22 participants selected for the DFM Access Program in 2021 for her series titled TWELVE. At the end of 2021 she was selected for the Durban Filmmart Alumni Business Lab.

Her latest short film Even Though I Ate The Cake went into production at the end of January 2022 and is currently in post-production. At the start of 2022 Liese and Carolyn Carew were selected for JETS (JuniorEntertainment Slate) for her feature Extravagant Ways to Say Goodbye in Berlin and were announced as winners, this allowed for meetings with the likes of Bankside Films (UK) and Paul Brett (The King’s Speech). Liese has recently completed principal photography on her feature debut; SECONDS ,a feature length sports drama.