South Africans doing great things
The film Eye in The Sky by Gavin Hood almost shows South Africans doing great things but Chicken Licken's advertising campaign does it very well. From a science teacher building a replica robot of himself to the “South African Space Agency” sending a man to deliver Chicken Liken to South African astronauts in space at the international space station the advertisements show South Africans doing great things.
However this concept of South Africans doing great things has not caught on in the country’s film industry. A film that comes close to showing South Africans doing great things is Eye in the Sky (2015) by Gavin Hood. The South African film director, Gavin Hood uses South African actors, Vusi Kunene and Kim Engelbrecht alongside seasoned British stars.
The film is about an ethical dilemma that faces the British Army in which they have to decide to bomb a house in a foreign country, Kenya in which terrorists are preparing bombs even though bombing the house will also mean killing an innocent girl outside the house. The bomb is dropped on the house by a drone which is operated remotely from a military base a great distance away.
Films with South African actors and a director don't usually consist of such a plot in which South Africans do great things. South African film-making is often relegated to soppy love stories based in the Township or small scale robberies committed by small time gangsters. The films do not usually show South African government departments such as the Police and Army doing great things
The film, Eye in the Sky would have effectively shown South Africans doing great things had it for example portrayed the South African Army facing an ethical dilemma when deciding how to free women and children kidnapped by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In real life the South African Government has conducted peace missions in the DRC for many years. This provides an opportunity to show South Africans doing great things in a foreign country.
Police officers are often portrayed as incompetent in South African films, drama series and soap operas. The cops are seldom shown solving complex cases or arresting powerful gangs. For example in the Telenovela Isibaya the protagonists, the leaders of the Zungu clan, Mpiyakhe Zungu and the leader of the Ndlovu clan, Samson Ndlovu are often shown taking the law into their own hands when dealing with criminals.
Talented South African directors like Gavin Hood need to make films that show South African government departments such as the Police Service and Army doing great things in films. Ordinary individual South Africans also need to be shown doing great things in films. Organizations such as Brand South Africa need to fund films that show South Africans doing great things. That will inspire South Africans to become patriotic. Such films need not have expensive special effects. They just need creative storytelling.
The film Eye in the Sky gives an example of creative storytelling limiting the cost of a film. The foreign setting portrayed is Kenya but the film is actually shot in a South African Township and made to look as if it is shot in Kenya. If a viewer looks carefully he or she will see that old government housing built during the Apartheid years appear in the setting that is supposed to be Kenya. A viewer is tricked to think that the setting is Kenya because a lot of Kenyan actors appear in the setting.
Author: Itumeleng Tau
Email: [email protected]