DIRECTOR'S NOTES 
I recall a story my father once told me about, growing up in Sophiatown.  He used to say:  "When friends are dark, days are few".  Ntibidi and Skelm had very few days. They were unemployed, their working days were few… like Sundays are.  After a weekend of debauchery, they would leave home early on Sunday mornings to find funerals. "Funerals?"  I asked. "Yes funerals!"  In their dusty Black suits they would skip between streets looking for funerals. When they found one they would ask:
"Ekse wie  het geklerie?" (Who died?)
"Ou Themba!" the mourners would reply.
"Themba?… Themba? Themba? Van? (who?)"
And the mourners would fill the necessary gaps:
"Ou Themba… Ou Jakes se laaitie van Alex in 14." (Themba… Jakes' son from 14th Avenue in Alexander township).
And before they could finish, Ntibidi would signal to Skelm, fingers behind his back. Skelm would send out a wail louder than the mistress and the wife near the grave.
"Oh Themba! Oh Teeza! my bra se laaitie. Hoe ken jy so gou klerie? Eish! Lewe is kak!!" (Oh Themba , my best friend son how could leave us soon!!! Damn! How unfair life is!!!) The mourners would step aside as Skelm and Ntibidi took the floor and gave their tearful outpouring whilst eagerly eyeing the food & drinks table.
Later I found out that in our ancient traditions we had professional mourners who led the mourning process, yes, the crying at funerals. The belief was that until you cried, truly cried, the soul of the departed would not leave the body to join the ancestors in the hereafter.
What struck me was the contradictions between these two worlds, in the one world we have professional mourners who help the bereaved express their emotion and allow the departed to transcend to the heavens, whilst in the other world, the sacred act of burying the dead seems to have been surpassed by the excuse for just another trendy social gathering.
MAX AND MONAexplores what would happen if these two worlds came together. And Max's character is the vehicle through which these opposing worlds manifest and collide.
Underlying the entire story is the comedy and the pain, the fantastic and often absurd contradictions, the unlikely situations and the colourful characters that Max encounters on his journey.
The film is also a love letter to Jo'burg, my city. I have watched the Mafikizolo's (newcomers) with their suitcases and paper bags arrive on the bus or train, They come  "…looking for gold on the streets" and all they get is a baptism of chaos!!! Welcome to Jozi!
 
BRINGING MAX AND MONA TO THE BIG SCREEN
Writer/Director, Teddy Mattera first started developing the idea for MAX AND MONA" in 1999. The project was picked up by the now defunct, Primmedia Pictures and Mattera was sent to the Maurits Binger Institute in Holland to develop the script.
In 2000 the script, then know as "Good Mourning Max" was optioned by Joel Phiri at ICE Media. Mattera worked on several drafts with, renowned South Africa writer, Greg Latter who was brought in to help Mattera with the structure of the story.
Producer, Tendeka Matatu first read the script in 2001 when he joined ICE Media, " One of the first things that drew me to the story was the fantastic opening scene". ICE Media continued to develop the project and raised some initial funding from the National Film and Video Foundation. The film was originally set to shoot on 35mm and budgeted at 12 million South African Rand, however with Teddy Mattera as a first time director this proved difficult to raise.
In May 2002 ICE produced a short film for Teddy Mattera entitled "Norman Comes to Jozi" and used this to leverage a grant from the European Union ACP Cinema fund, six months later the film was selected for the Dv8 slate. One of the big challenges was to bring the budget down to approximately 5 million South African Rand, to fit within the Dv8 budget range. "We decided to shoot the film on HD, cut the number of shooting weeks and the Dv8 executive producers managed to close a great post-production deal for the film."
Scheduled to commence pre-production at the end of July 2003, Mattera used the first half of 2003 as an extended pre-pre production period, working with the Dv8 development team refining the script. Casting director, Moonyeenn Lee was brought on board and she set about the difficult task of finding MAX.
When Mpho Lovinga first came for the audition, Mattera immediately knew this was his, king of tears and when veteran South African actor, Jerry Mofokeng offered to play UNCLE NORMAN the duo was complete. Mattera was adamant in going against the stereotype when casting the part of RAZOR, "Percy Matsemela had right fiery temperament and when we put him in between the two huge twins the comedy really started coming through" recalls Mattera.
Production Designer, Dimitri Repanis and D.O.P Ivan Leathers crafted a distinct look for the film, drawing from Mattera's love for Johannesburg and his knowledge of Soweto culture. Mattera wanted three very distinct looks, the loving rural landscape from which Max departs, the overwhelming and gritty city center and the slightly offbeat "jazz cool" look of Uncle Norman's backyard shabeen.
Principal photography was challenging due to the tight schedule and large amount of locations. The rural scenes were shot towards the end of the schedule. "Filming the opening scene was difficult in many aspects, we had to shoot the scene over three days just before sunset so that when the sky was digitally replaced the ambient light would look right. We had one day devoted to the CGI plates, stunt, rain effects and tree explosion and to top it all off we had to crane huge tree onto a remote hill" recalls Matatu.
Editor, Henion Han worked throughout the shoot putting together the dailies and had a first assembly ready a week after principal photography ended. Han and Mattera then spent a further seven weeks crafting the film whilst Philip Miller began working on the score.
 
WRITER / DIRECTOR - TEDDY MATTERA
Teddy is a South African who did his film studies in the U.S.A., U.K. and Europe. The first film he worked on, as an intern, Hoop Dreams was nominated for Oscar in 1993. He has since worked on various documentaries for SABC (South Africa), BBC, Channel Four (U.K), and other international broadcasters. He has also is worked on a number of short films, commercials and music videos mainly as an Assistant Director.
MNET selected ''Waiting for Valdez'', a short film written by Teddy, as part of the 2001 MNET New Directions series. Recently Teddy directed the hilarious short film ''Norman Comes to Jozi'' as well as several inserts for the SABC2 flag ship series ''Vuyani Mzansi''