A mother’s love, a devastating injustice and a hand-stitched heart sparked a movement. Martha: A Heartfelt South African Story is the film that will leave you changed.
South Africa (01 May 2025) – A short film is making waves across South Africa, not because it’s filled with drama or spectacle, but because it’s real. Deeply human. And overflowing with heart.
Martha: A Heartfelt South African Story (featured below) is a powerful new short documentary that invites viewers into a story shaped by love, injustice, resilience, and the quiet strength of one remarkable woman.
Directed by Erin Nel from Fell and Company and executive produced by Blake Dyason from CN&CO, the film tells the extraordinary true story of Martha Letsoalo, a domestic worker who became a second mother to Julie Hadley and her siblings during the apartheid era. In a time when society tried to keep people apart, the Hadley family embraced Martha and her children as their own.
But life would throw Martha a devastating curve.
Her son, Emanuel, was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Martha spent her life savings trying to free him, determined to fight the injustice. Just weeks before his expected release, Emanuel tragically died in prison. It’s the kind of heartbreak that could destroy anyone but Martha chose to keep going. Still determined to work, still refusing charity, she carried on with grace and dignity. Julie, searching for a way to help that Martha would accept, sent her a small parcel of felt, some thread and a simple idea… hand-stitch hearts to sell.
Martha didn’t just stitch a few. She made 200.
And those 200 felt hearts became the foundation of Heartfelt, a social enterprise that now employs women in Martha’s community of Makapanstad. A business born not from profit but from purpose. From love. From legacy.
What started as a quiet act of kindness became something far bigger than anyone imagined.
Martha: A Heartfelt South African Story is a reminder of what the spirit of Ubuntu truly means: I am because we are. So press play, watch below and be reminded that even in the face of the greatest loss, something beautiful can still grow because when hearts are stitched with love, they don’t just heal… they uplift entire communities.
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