MAPANTSULA
South Africa, 1988, 99 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Mogotiane, Marcel Van Heerden.
Directed by Oliver Schmitz.
Mapantsula is an impressive, small-budget South African film. It was co-written by its star, Thomas Mogotlane. He collaborated with a friend, Oliver Schmits, with whom he had worked at the film co-op in Johannesburg, making a short, The Grabber, about a Soweto gangster. This was used as the base for raising the money for this feature film. International backing came (including David Hannay Productions from Sydney).
The film shows life in Soweto in its ordinary detail, the humdrum life, the happier aspects of life within this kind of South African town. The film also capitalises on the history of Soweto in the conflicts of apartheid. The film-makers decided to focus on an ordinary young man, a petty gangster, rather than an immediate hero. While not interested in matters political, he is caught up in events in South Africa and, imprisoned, has to take a stand. The difficulty is that the character is somewhat hard to sympathise with - but nevertheless one comes to admire his political awakening and stand.
The film is made from the inside - and might be compared with such contemporary films about South Africa as Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom, A World Apart, A Dry White Season.
1.The impact of this South African film? The South African film-makers, the restrictions on production, the achievement (and the film being obstructed for exhibition by censorship)?
2.The impact for the home audience, the black South Africans? White South Africans? For international audiences? For helping to understand the realities of apartheid? For emotional response and action?
3.The photography of Soweto, the atmosphere of realism, the detail of the homes, the shops, the streets? The nightclub? The cemetery? Prisons? Authentic? The musical score, local music, classics?
4.The contribution of the writer-actor? The meaning of the title - `Wide Boy'? Audience sympathy for him or not? An ordinary man and his growing in consciousness? The screenplay and its framework of his arrest, the audience sharing his own review of his life? The flashbacks?
5.The arrest, the situation, his torture, the recapitulation of his life, impact, his final stand and heroism?
6.Panic and his background, life in Soweto, the pickpocket, the whites? At home, his relationship with family, with Ma Mobise, with Sam? His activities, at the nightclub, clashes, friends? His relationship with Pat, out with her? Prospects? The visits to the white home? Asking her for money, the clash, the owner setting the dog on him? His hurling the brick? The consequences for Pat, her friendship with Sam? Panic's jealousy? The change in Pat, going to the meetings, his sulking? The funeral, the police rounding up people? His being presumed to be an informer? His stance?
7.Pat, life in Soweto, her background, moving into the white home and her work as a servant, relationship with the white mistress? The contrasts in the lifestyle and affluence? Freedoms? Her work, Panic's visits, her anger about the money, her being sacked? The return home, the friendship with Sam, the invitation to go to the meetings, the trade unions? The influence of Buma? The effect on her life?
8.Sam, the relationship with his mother, the contrast with Panic, his activities and interests, Pat, the friendship, the meetings?
9.Trade unions in South Africa, legality, political influence? Workers and the fear of the whites? The meetings, the types in the union, Buma and the exercise of leadership?
10.Ma Mobise, her relationship with Sam, with Panic?
11.How credible the characters, the political background, their daily lives, trade unions and clubs?
12.The presentation of the whites - stereotypes or not? Pat's mistress and her condescension? Stander and the police, the torture? The police at the riots and their bewilderment? Brutality?
13.The film's contribution to understanding of South African history, the social situations, political implications? Language? The fears? The violence? The future?
