In Contention

Tag: Yesterday

  • Keep an eye on it

    Writing from Cannes in May, I broke form to issue my only concrete Oscar prediction of the year: that Oliver Schmitz’s South African AIDS-crisis drama “Life, Above All” (then competing in the Un Certain Regard strand) will be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar next year, and could even win.

    “Is it that bad?” quipped some of my colleagues after I wrote this. On the contrary: Schmitz’s film, impressively shouldered by 12 year-old actress Khomotoso Manyaka, takes a measured, moving approach to subject matter that could lend itself to didacticism. It’s a richer, more searching film than Darrell James Roodts’s similarly themed “Yesterday,” which, you might recall, earned South Africa its first Oscar nod in the category five years ago.

    Human-interest themes and child-led narratives often score with voters in the foreign-language race, and between last year’s surfeit of cinematic interest and this year’s World Cup exposure, it’s fair to say that South Africa is having a bit of a moment right now. That was my reasoning behind the prediction in May — and that was before a very valuable player entered the scene in the shape of Sony Pictures Classics.

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  • Jennifer Hudson boards Winnie Mandela biopic

    Jennifer Hudson at the 2006 Academy AwardsThe current vogue for South African-focused cinema continues apace. With Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman applying A-list Hollywood polish to the figure of former president Nelson Mandela, Jennifer Hudson is now set to do the same for his ex-wife.

    Rumors about this have been circling for some time, but yesterday Variety confirmed that Hudson has signed on for “Winnie,” a full-scale biopic of the controversial politician, most notorious for her alleged (ahem) involvement in the murder of a 14 year-old activist in 1989.

    South African director Darrell James Roodt (an Oscar nominee for 2004’s “Yesterday”) is at the helm. He also co-wrote the screenplay, based on Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s 2003 biography “Winnie Mandela: A Life.” (Emma Gilbey’s superb “The Lady” would be a better starting point, in my opinion.)

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  • Hollywood, Johannesburg

    Sharlto Copley in District 9In January 2005, exactly one week after I left my birth town of Johannesburg to study film in the brighter lights of London, Darrell James Roodt’s earnest AIDS drama “Yesterday” became South Africa’s first Oscar nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

    Only a month later, the rather better “uCarmen eKhayelitsha” took the Golden Bear at the Berlin fest; again, the country’s first production to take top honors at one of the major festivals. And only a year later, Gavid Hood’s “Tsotsi” went one better than “Yesterday” by taking the Oscar.

    By this time, I was beginning to wonder if the movie gods were sending me a sign that I’d picked the wrong country: South Africa’s film industry seemed poised for a crossover explosion. That didn’t quite happen. Hampered by the usual financial constraints of a third-world industry, the country went back to its steady output of provincial lowbrow comedies and not-quite-there dramas, few of them seen beyond its own borders.

    Almost five years later, however, something interesting is starting to bubble there again — but this time, it’s not South Africa’s own industry making waves as much as an international cinematic preoccupation with the country and its stories.

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  • Speaking of South Africa…

    White Wedding… as I just was, my Cape Town-based friend Ed just notified me that the country has selected their official foreign-language Oscar submission. “White Wedding” is a romantic comedy from novelist-turned-filmmaker Jann Turner, and starring Jodie Whittaker of “Venus” fame.

    The blurb describes it as “an appealing, feel-good movie about love, commitment, intimacy and friendship and a host of maddening obstacles that can get in the way of a happy ending.” Yes, but what’s it actually about? I’m afraid I’m none the wiser.

    Turner’s accomplished novels are on the sentimental side of socially conscious; I’m guessing that sensibility extends to her films. “White Wedding” has had a healthy domestic box-office run; an unusual feat in a country where local adult-oriented cinema rarely finds a large audience.

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