Sanaa Mothabisa shoots from the heart in intimate new work about the mothers who raise us all
Another strong step forward for a director building a clear lane in emotionally grounded storytelling, Sanaa Mothabisa’s latest commercial for Infacare through LePub leans into one of his superpowers: sensitivity. Fresh off taking home Silver in the ‘First Series – Full Series’ category at the Young Directors Award in Cannes for Volkswagen, Sanaa and the team at Sanaa Films continue to build an impressive body of work. His emotional intelligence comes through in every part of the production, particularly in how he directs performance. Shot in striking black and white, the film reflects a director growing in confidence and craft.
LePub Senior Copywriter, Hamilton Zwane says, “Working with Sanaa on this was honestly magical. He has a very gentle, intuitive way of telling stories. He didn’t try to overwork the idea; he protected its honesty. Every scene felt considered but never forced, and that’s what made the story feel so real and lived-in.”
INFACARE ‘A Village of Mothers’
“When I got the script, it immediately made me think about my upbringing and how I experienced motherhood,” says Sanaa. “I grew up in a setting where my mom wasn’t just my mom. My mother was, mme wa batho, a mother to many. My friends would report to my mother before their own mothers. So this film became about showing that real version of motherhood.”
Sanaa wanted to get as close as possible to the truth of what motherhood actually looks like in many South African homes: communal, messy, warm, demanding, and shared by many women, not just the immediate family. The spot moves through recognisable moments of everyday care, showing mothers, aunts and grandmothers juggling work, children, chores and households, while quietly looking after everyone around them.
Framegrabs from Infacare
Clayton Swartz, Creative Director at LePub says, “What this marketing team really understood was the power of brand storytelling and that when done right, it’s a superpower that once seen, is hard to forget. Brand storytelling taps into insights that can make a 45-second film feel like a 10-minute short story, which lands the brand benefit in a tangible way. After we shared the idea with Sanaa, he crafted every frame to take us on an emotional journey to land the thought of ‘a village of mothers’, and that gave added meaning to ‘it starts with care’.”
What makes this piece stand out is not just the emotional storytelling, but the clear growth in Sanaa’s technical confidence as a director. For the first time, he made the decision to shoot an entire commercial in true black and white, rather than filming in colour and grading it later in post. That meant committing fully to monochrome from the start, with lighting, wardrobe, textures and production design all carefully considered for the format.
Behind the scenes, Director Sanaa.
“There’s something very direct about black and white,” explains Sanaa. “Colour can sometimes distract with beauty. Black and white strips everything back. You focus more on emotion, on faces, on texture, on honesty. For this story, that felt right.”
Behind the scenes. Director Sanaa with young actor.
Sanaa also has a natural ease with kids, and it shows. “I just build a relationship with them before we even get to set,” he says. “I’ll call, spend time with them, make sure they’re comfortable with me. So when we’re shooting, it doesn’t feel like work. It just feels like we’re hanging out.”
As Sanaa Films continues to grow, this latest Infacare piece reinforces what has quickly become Sanaa’s signature: honest human stories, beautifully shot and handled with care.
Wanna (s)talk some more? Sanaa Film’s company website.
Produced by the IDIDTHAT Content Studio
Credits: Anne Hirsch (Writer) / Julie Maunder
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This editorial was commissioned by Sanaa Films.
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