YESTERDAY

South Africa, 2003, 93 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Darrell James Roodt

Yesterday was produced by Home Box Office Films in association with South African companies including the Nelson Mandela Foundation. It was written and directed by Darrell James Roodt, the veteran South African director who made a number of films even under the apartheid rule but who emerged in the 1990s with such films on African themes as Serafina as well as a new version of Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. He had a brief stay in Hollywood making the minor crime comedy Fatherhood with Patrick Swayze.

This film is a focus on contemporary South Africa but with memories of the apartheid years. It is quite poignant in its presentation of a mother living in a Zulu village, walking all the way to the hospital with her daughter (whom she calls Beauty) trying to get a visit to the doctor but failing each week and having to return.

The surprise of the film – although it should not be a surprise – is that she is found to be HIV-positive. Her husband is away working in Johannesburg and, as with so many workers in South Africa, he has contracted the disease from a prostitute partner. He returns home to die, to the suspicion of the villagers except the kind-hearted teacher who tries to explain the situation, especially to the women. His is cared for by his wife who even builds her own house for him, kind of his own private hospital where she moves him and where he dies.

Yesterday is an important film insofar as it openly acknowledges the reality of AIDS and its widespread effect in South Africa.

The film shows the continued difficulties for black Africans, even after the demise of apartheid. There are the harsh traditions in the towns, the lack of water and hygiene, the lack of medical opportunities – but it finishes with the hope of solid education for the next generation.

Roodt is not always a subtle film-maker, relying on more direct techniques, unfussed, even sentimental. He would not be considered in any ways a stylish director – but the impact of his films comes especially from his content and from the strong performances he gets from his cast, especially Leleti Khumalo as the heroine whose name is symbolically, Yesterday.

1.The impact of the film for South Africans? Black South Africans? Those affected by the HIV virus? For overseas audiences? An emotional story about a very serious issue?

2.The films of Darrell James Roodt, his storytelling, his issues, being didactic – and with not such a visual flair, relying on the significance of his themes rather than his visual style?

3.The village setting, Kwazuli Natal? The dusty village, the long roads, the mountains in the background? The sky, the sun? Beauty and rugged? A homeland for the Zulu people? The use of the Zulu language? The musical score and its emotion?

4.The title, the evocation of the past? Images of Africa’s past, segregation, fences and wire? Poverty, difficulties in seeing a doctor? The AIDS epidemic and its effect?

5.The title of the film and it being the name of the leading character? The symbolism of this name?

6.The walk during the credits, difficult to see the doctor? The discussion with Beauty about being a bird? Walking yet again to the doctor, being turned away, the desperation? The insight into Yesterday and Beauty and their relationship?

7.Meeting the teachers on the way, at home in the village, the village pump, the water, the gossip? Life at home, joy, the absent father?

8.Seeing the doctor, the white doctor, her illness? The medicine? The woman with the traditional cures? Wanting Yesterday to admit that she was angry, her refusal? Her strong will and telling the doctor that she would not die before her daughter went to school?

9.The teacher, becoming her friend, Yesterday bequeathing her daughter to her when she died? The personality of the teacher, the sympathy?

10.The husband returning from Johannesburg, his illness, the talk with Yesterday, her not wanting to hear the details, the truth, AIDS, her response, his regrets?

11.The women of the village, their reaction, their harshness in judgment on the husband, on Yesterday? At the washing at the river? Their fears, the teacher trying to explain how AIDS was communicated by blood? Their running from the pump and from Yesterday? Their not wanting their children to play with Beauty?

12.Yesterday’s visit to the hospital, its being full of AIDS sufferers? The details of her making the building, getting the corrugated iron, the detail of making it, hammering, the hood of the car? The group helping her with this?

13.The difficulty of walking her husband to her private hospital, his sleeping, talking, his final words? Yesterday standing at the grave? All the events happening from one summer to another? The teacher at the grave? Persuading Yesterday to come back?

14.Buying the uniform for Beauty, Beauty’s delight in it? Her standing watching Beauty at school, waving? The children and the future of the village at school?

15.A picture for the South Africans of tomorrow to remember their yesterday, especially the yesterday of AIDS?