Back in January, First Run Features released a four-disc box set featuring movies from Global Lens: Africa.  Global Lens brings some of the most remarkable films from around the world to DVD, and it’s great to be able to explore films from countries no one would think of as movie hotbeds.  For example, on this set there are movies from Angola and Burkina Faso, two countries that I don’t associate with movie making, and to be honest they are two countries about which I barely think at all.  The four movies are…

Another Man’s Garden (*********9/10)

Year:  2006
Genre:  Drama
Countries:  Mozambique, Portugal, France
Language:  Portugese w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Gigliola Zacara, Evaristo Abreu
Director:  Jose Candido de Carvalho
Run time:  80 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     My favourite movie in the set, Another Man’s Garden tells the story of Sophia, a young woman in Mozambique with aspirations to become a doctor.  While the culture in the country is progressive enough to give a young girl a chance to go to medical school, it is still regressive enough to make it incredibly difficult for that girl to get there.  Sophia is being pressured by a teacher at school – if she doesn’t have sex with him, he will fail her, and she will never become a doctor. 

     This appears to be a common problem – Sophia’s friend has slept with a teacher already, and it is a pervasive problem throughout the school.  So much so that it seems nothing can be done about it, and the teachers regularly die of AIDS.  Although it’s a huge worry to the girls that they may catch it if they sleep with their teachers, they are still put in an untenable position with little choice.

     Sophia’s moral dilemma is compounded by her boyfriend’s infidelity, her father’s infirmity, her siblings’ dependance and her mother’s apathy.  More serious even than the threats of her teacher is the attitude of her mother who believes what appears to be an old local adage – “educating a girl is like tending another man’s garden”.  Another Man’s Garden is subtle but strong, and strangely uplifiting, featuring some great performances by the women in the film.

Hollow City (*******7/10)

Year:  2004
Genre:  Drama
Country:  Angola
Language:  Portugese w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Roldan Pinto Joao, Domingos Fernandes, Raul Rosario, Julia Botelho, Ana Bustorff
Director:  Maria Joao Ganga
Run time:  88 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Hollow City reminds me of a few other movies, like Sweet Sixteen and films of that nature.  Young N’Dala has just witnessed the murder of his entire family and the burning of his village.  Now orphaned, he is brought to the big city by well-intentioned nuns, who tell him that his family is now up in the sky.  Of course, he believes that they are ONLY in the sky over his particular village, so he must get home to find them.

     He sneaks out of the nuns’ custody and starts to make his way through the big city, where he makes friends with Ze, a young aspiring actor who helps N’Dala hide and eventually finds him a place to live.  The 12-year-old little boy is surrounded by crime – prostitution, drugs, violence – but he is too naive to see it until it’s too late.  Because of the little boy’s innocence, and his desire to look on the bright side of everything, the film is a very cheerful one, right up to the surprising, very sad (if a little forced) conclusion.

The Night Of Truth (*******7/10)

Year:  2004
Genre:  Drama
Countries:  Burkina Faso, France
Language:  French, Moore & Dioula w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Naky Sy Savane, Georgette Pare, Adam Ouedraogo, Rasmane Ouedraogo, Sami Rama
Director:  Fanta Regina Nacro
Run time:  100 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     A long-running conflict is on the verge of ending, as the Bonande tribe is about to sign a peace treaty with their enemies, the Nayak.  While the leaders of both tribes see the value in peace and are willing to let bygones be bygones, not everyone is so enamoured with the prospect.  Many of the women in each tribe continue to harbor deep-seeded hatred of the other side, as they have lost sons and brothers and husbands to the conflict. 

     Through the tortured actions of grieving women, and images of war, and drums, we are constantly reminded during the film just what the cost of civil war and genocide really is.  It’s a powerful and somehow hopeful film, with some images that remain in my head several days later.  My one complaint is that there are a couple of unnecessary characters who drag the film almost entirely to a halt every time they’re on the screen.  But that’s a minor problem in an otherwise terrific movie.

Bunny Chow (*******7/10)

Year:  2006
Genre:  Drama, Comedy
Countries:  South Africa
Language:  English, and Afrikaans w/ English subtitles
Starring:  David Kibuuka, Joey Rasdien, Kagiso Lediga, Keren Neumann, Jason Cope
Director:  John Barker
Run time:  95 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Bunny Chow is a film from South Africa about three stand-up comedians and their buddy who go on a road trip to the Oppi Koppi music festival.  Buddies-on-a-road trip comedies are nothing new.  Remember Road Trip?  That was one…but rarely are they this smart and compelling.  There is nothing terribly ambitious about Bunny Chow (named after a sandwich crammed with curry sold in South Africa).  It doesn’t re-write the book on comedy, on road trips, on sex-crazed young men or on humorous dialogue.  But it works, and it works well.  This movie is very funny, thanks almost entirely to the three comedians, David Kibuuka, Kagiso Lediga and Joey Rasdien.

     Bunny Chow is charming, funny and vivid.  I say vivid, even though it is filmed in black and white, because the movie crackles with a youthful energy as these guys meet girls, get girls, lose girls and bond with one another over the course of 95 minutes.  The dialogue is sharp and witty, and on occasion absolutely hilarious in a 40 Year Old Virgin sort of way.  Most of the dialogue is in English, although there is a little bit of Afrikaans and Tsotsi Taal that comes with English subtitles.  Although the characters have thick accents and occasionally need subtitles even when they speak English, most of their profanity-laced banter requires no translation.

     The characters do all the things comedians on road trips are supposed to do – have sex with women, get chased by husbands and hot chicks with guns, do drugs and argue about sex.  But most of that stuff is incidental and doesn’t form the entire plot of the movie, like so many of Bunny Chow’s American and Candian counterparts.  Instead, the movie rests on the charm of the actors, the bond between the characters, and some funny and insightful dialogue.  And on those strengths, without breaking any new ground, this movie works and works well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 at 9:03 am and is filed under 2004, 2006, Comedy, Drama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.