ZULU LOVE LETTER
South Africa, 2004, 105 minutes, Colour.
Pamela Nomvete Marimbe, Mpuni Malatsi.
Directed by Ramadan Suleman.
The world has wondered what has happened in South Africa after the end of the apartheid regime. Has racial prejudice disappeared? What of those guilty of persecution and cruelty during the apartheid times? What of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its effect on ordinary people?
This film tries to dramatise some of these issues and offer some answers. The focus is on a very strong woman, Thandeka, (a vibrant take-notice performance by Pamela Nombete Marimbe) a journalist who experiences her own writer’s block and an emotional block in trying to deal with the events of the late 1990s as well as what happened to her during apartheid. The audience is invited to share her emotional journey, as she tries to make a solid relationship with her daughter who was born deaf after her mother had been battered during months of imprisonment. The young girl wants to relate to her mother but realises that her mother wants to save the world and has been less interested in relating lovingly to her. The journalist does take her daughter on some of the trips to find out the truth of what happened.
A particular concern is a young woman who accompanied her, who was a source for material and was arrested and killed by apartheid forces. Two white men and a black man who reappear during the film, are apprehensive about revelations to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and then try to kill murder the journalist. They succeed in killing her ex-husband and injuring her daughter. The final focus is on the mother of the young girl who was killed and as they persuade her to give evidence to the Commission.
The central character is very determined, alienating people and the audience at times, yet expressing some of the deep anguish of the period. By setting the film in modern times, amongst working journalists, amongst the settlements outside Johannesburg as well as in the city itself and its outskirts, it seems particularly relevant.
1.The passion of this film? The African perspective on apartheid and its aftermath? The Truth and Reconciliation Committee? The search for the truth? The reconciliation of African families who lost members during the apartheid times?
2.The passion of the film-making, the strong, even over the top performances? The savagery of the dialogue? The portrait of the characters, the memories of the past? The anguish of the present? The visual style of the washed and animated sequences with the memories of the past? The musical score, the African songs? The people singing them, the occasions for singing, the funeral?
3.Johannesburg, the 1990s? The newspaper offices, the streets and supermarkets? The malls? The towns and townships? Wealth in the city, poverty in the townships? The houses and the reminders of the apartheid times? An authentic setting for the action?
4.The film’s focus on Tahndeke? The opening, the loud music, her collapse in the car, hospitalisation? Her getting out, her angry language? Wanting her desk back, the discussions with the editor? Her feeling unable to write? Her feelings of guilt about the past, the dangers for the photographer who photographed torture? For the young woman about whom she wrote and who was killed and left a grieving mother and sister? Whose remains could not be found? Her own relationship with her daughter, thirteen years old, her being deaf from birth (and later information given about her mother being battered during her pregnancy, five months in a cell)? Her work with the sisters, the sympathetic response of the superior, the warm African sister for Mangi? Mangi and her relationship with her mother, her mother not knowing sign language well, being busy saving the world instead of caring for her daughter? Leaving Mangi with her own parents? The tensions in the home, the meals, the conversations? Tahndeke and her own life, her ex-husband, her men friends? Her not being able to pick up her daughter from school and asking her ex-husband, his not getting the message in time? Her own sense of failure and inadequacy? Taking her daughter on the various trips, to see the old lady in Soweto? The daughter beginning to understand her mother’s commitment but not knowing what happened? With her father? Her reading the files and the computer notes? Her making gifts and the memento of her father? Going out with her father, their being pursued in the truck, the accident? Tahndeke and her grief, searching for her daughter, finding her at home? The reconciliation? Tahndeke and the old lady, taking her to the bar, trying to track down those responsible for her daughter’s death? Wanting her to speak to the commission? The finale, going to see the old lady, her daughter? The funeral and the reconciliation?
5.Mangi, thirteen, born deaf, with the sisters, her skill in art? With her grandparents? Her not being close to her mother, trying to bridge the gap, the sign language, travelling with her, wanting to know the story? Her being abandoned at school by her father not knowing, her mother making a mistake? Her anger? Accusations against her mother? The accident, her escape with her life, returning home? The mutual embrace? The preparation for the funeral?
6.The portrait of the old lady, her daughter in the choir, committed to the cause against apartheid, her being with Tahndeke and Tahndeke telling her story? The pursuit, being stopped by the police, the helicopter lights, the shooting and the death of the young woman? Her sister years later wanting to know the truth? Their wanting to bury her body? The old lady being satisfied?
7.The world of the paper, reports and people being informed on? Files being subpoenaed? The editor and his trying to do his best and Tahndeke’s anger?
8.The people in the countryside, at the bars, restaurants? Friends? The old friends from the campaigning days? The continued police harassment?
9.The three killers, two white and one black, checking on the old lady, stealing the files from the paper? Their being responsible for Tahndeke’s husband’s alleged accidental death?
10.The history of South Africa, the experience of apartheid from the point of view of black Africans, the people in the townships, the repression, the role of the police, the informers, the torture? The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the possibility for all coming to the surface, forgiveness and reconciliation? The necessity of confronting angers?
