Andrew Mudge takes his audience through Atang Mokoenya's journey through his past and present ways of life in his film The Forgotten Kingdom. Mudge uses traditional and contemporary customs throughout the film to show his audience how diverse the different countries of Africa are. In turn, we then begin to see how the tension builds up between these traditional and contemporary customs and how it has the possibility to tear apart loved ones. .
In the beginning, Mudge shows Atang living in Johannesburg and we can immediately see that this city is very urbanized and fast moving. Atang spends most of his time with his friends drinking and roaming the city. It is seen early on in the film that he does not have a good relationship with his father and barely sees or speaks to him. But, all of the sudden he is faced with his father's death due to aids. Even though Atang knows what his father died from, he does not speak of it. Atang then discovers that his father has already planned his funeral and he must travel to his previous home, Lesotho, to bury him. We get a sense of annoyance from Atang in that he has to go through with this process and spend a lot of money and time in a place that he never wanted to return to. When he arrives in Lesotho he is surrounded by people and customs that he is not used to. Because Atang lived in Johannesburg for such a long period of time, he became accustomed to the modernity there and forgot all about his birthplace. So, when he was in Lesotho he wanted to leave immediately. That was how he felt up until he reunited with his childhood crush, Dineo. This was when the film and Atang came to a turning point. Dineo helps Atang rediscover his previous history and adopt his old traditional customs. We see Dineo taking Atang around the city and showing him what all he missed during the years he spent in Johannesburg. Dineo is the first person to help Atang realize the culture and history he left behing when he left Johannesburg.