I AM ALL GIRLS

Africa, 2021, 107 minutes, Colour.

Erica Wessels, Hlubi Mboya, Deon Lotz, Mothusi Magano.

Directed by Donovan Marsh.

The poster gives an emphasis about how the title of this film should be spoken. All Girls is actually printed ALL GIRLS. It is something like the equivalent of “I am Spartacus”. The speaker is saying that she represents all the young girls who have been abducted, abused, trafficked.

And this is the theme of the film, setting South Africa towards the end of the apartheid era as well as an investigation in the present, in Johannesburg.

Any film about child trafficking can be harrowing to watch as are many sequences here. The target is black children, lack girls, rounded up by white men and women, black collaborators, connection with the government officials, and international connections with Middle East countries. (This is shown by planes flying in to secret locations, men in Arab dress inspecting the girls, their being loaded onto the plains – but, at the end, part of the screenplay says that a group coming in is from I ran – and many have commented that this is not accurate, this kind of trafficking was not carried on for I ran.)

After watching the plight of a group of girls, we moved to the present where there is an investigation, a special squad, moving against child trafficking. The central character is a film, a white police investigator (Erica Wessels) is a driven woman, rather stolid in her intensity, over-willing to take leaps in her investigations, failing to work by the book, getting warrants…. She is part of a team, exasperating her supervisor George (my first seem a Ghana) a long-time veteran. Also working with her is a young woman, Ntombi (Hlubi Mboya), a researcher. She and Jodie have a tentative relationship.

We see black cloaked and masked person watching secret tapes of a confession of the child traffic who had then been murdered. And, throughout the film, there are posters of missing girls with their names and initials – and these initials start appearing on the chests of kill-victims either masked and cloaked investigator. Just as we suspect where this is going, the killer takes off the mask and we understand the driven nature of the pursuit, the harshest of judgements in the killings, the memorial with the bloodied carved initials.

And so, the main part of the film is the investigation, the further killings of perpetrators, Jodie intensely pursuing leads, especially in a container section of wharves.

All throughout the film and the audience has been seeing a politician, his contacts, at the airfields, and his choice and exploitation of a young girl who was not sent to the Middle East. He is found, a dramatic climax, a group of girls, the plane landing, taking off, his execution.

The film gives statistics at the end, always alarming, always half horrifying, a crime play play plague with millions of victims still today.

1. The title? As spoken by Ntombi? Her identification with all the trafficked girls?
2. The theme of child trafficking, in South Africa during apartheid times, white involvement, black involvement, government involvement, contacts with Middle East countries?
3. The South African settings, Johannesburg, the city? The past, the trafficking? The contemporary setting, police, investigations? Homes and locations? Apartments? Airfields? The musical score?
4. The focus on the girls, the initial sequences, the captive girls, interned, the white woman in charge, Nolte and the official connection? The other people involved? The visiting Arabs? The sale of the girls? Ntombi left behind, the choice by Nolte?
5. Ntombi, the black cloak and mask, watching the video of the confession? Jodie later watching it?
6. The police investigation, the special quad, George in charge, his manner and experience, in dealing with Jodie? The new investigator coming in? Responsibility? The closing down of the unit?
7. Jodie, her background, angry, impetuous, committed to her work? Leaping in without authorisations and warrants? In action, disappointments? The clashes with George? Her relationship with Ntombi, the relationship with her?
8. The killings of the traffickers? The cloaked and masked killer? Audience suspecting? Ntombi’s face revealed? The initials on the victim’s chest? In memory of the missing girls, their photos and names?
9. The various leads, the raids, the containers, the wharves, the finding of the girls, saving them?
10. The criminal brothers, the conspiracy, government connections, getting off because Jodie didn’t have a warrant?
11. Ntombi, her observing, the killings? Leaving the message for Jodie, Jodie watching the tape?
12. The brothers, the car, Jodie pursuing them, arguing with Ntombi, the crash? Taking the brothers? Ntombi killing them?
13. Jodie, Nolte, his family, political connections? The photo with Ntombi as a little girl, the flashbacks to her past? Motivation for Ntombi?
14. Stalking the house, the children, his escape? Going to the airfield, the plane arriving? The girls, their boarding the plane? Jodie and her attempt to stop the flight? Nolte and his death?
15. The official investigations, the death of the incoming detective at the airfield? No evidence the journey was present? Ntombi and her death?
16. Jodie, going to Iran – and the criticism that Iranians were not involved in this kind of traffic?
17. The final information, the relevance of this kind of story to world trafficking in children?