YOUNG people wearing very little or nothing at all. Intimate acts filmed in all their glory, complete with sound effects that could make the most liberal-minded among us blush. Nothing much to the storyline except sex, sex, sex...

This is more or less what you get with Mapona Volume 1, South Africa’s firstever black pornographic movie – and it’s causing many people in this generally conservative country of ours to get rather hot under the collar.
Black South Africans’ lives are often governed by tradition and culture and sex is not high on the agenda at extended family get-togethers. As for pornography, it was always regarded as something made by foreigners and watched by sickos behind closed doors.
It’s not for nothing pay channel DStv scrapped plans to introduce a porn channel last year – the proposal caused an outcry and no fewer than 41 000 people voted “No” to a survey asking whether they wanted it.
Judging from DRUM’s Facebook site Mapona Volume 1 doesn’t have much support either from the general public. “Who came up with the idea?” follower Phindi Khumalo asked. “Seriously disgusting.”
“Disgusting!” Melissa Paulse echoed. “Is this world becoming more like the western lands? What happened to our heritage and culture? What about the future of our youth?”
But Tau Morena, the black brother behind the blue movie, is unrepentant. He says he’s fulfilling a need and banishing taboos about sex that often cause more harm than good. His controversial movie was launched recently at Sexpo, the annual sex exhibition held in Midrand, Jozi, and is now available to registered users on the internet and in adult shops around the country at a cost of R150.
We meet the 30-something Tau and the star of his movie, the exotic young dancer who goes by the name of Titanic, shortly after the release of the hardcore flick.
Before we get started Tau wants to get two things straight: first, he doesn’t want to be identified because he’s “not the face of the film, just the creator”. Secondly, Tau has invited us to his townhouse, but his girlfriend insists we don’t take pictures inside. Does that mean she doesn’t approve? Seems like it. “I don’t want people to know the interview was done here and I don’t want to be associated with this,” she tells us curtly.

Tau is unperturbed. His favourite saying is “nothing ventured, nothing gained” – and he certainly has ventured a lot here.