TRIOMF

South Africa, 2008, 118 minutes, Colour.
Vanessa Cooke, Paul Luckhoff, Lionel Newton, Eduan Van Jaarsveldt, Pam Andrews.
Directed by Michael Raeburn.

Triomf is a very ironic title for a film which makes for very (very) uneasy watching.

Triomf, which is based on a novel by, is the name the apartheid government gave to a black township, Sophiatown, which was razed to the ground in the 1950s and the black inhabitants relocated (somewhat akin to the 2009 science-fiction story, District 9). Poor white families were settled in Triomf (no triumph here) where they lived on the outskirts of Johannesburg, poor, ignorant and inbred.

However, the setting for this film is 1994 just prior to the first elections which brought Nelson Mandela and the ANC to government. We are introduced to a middle-aged mechanic at work who observes (with some disdain) the singing, dancing and cheerful shouts of the local black population anticipating victory in the elections. He trudges home, enabling us to see Triomf, which does not look so bad on the outside, but is depressingly ugly inside. The family looks like those isolated hillbilly folks in the southern US who are often the characters in horror slasher films.

As the film proceeds and we get to know Pop, Mol, Treppie (the worker we first see) and the younger Lambert. They live a gross kind of life, slob style and some shock scenes, especially with incest. We later learn that the family secrets are even more gross. The acting, with dialogue in Afrikaans and English, seems odd, to say the least, and sometimes with a touch of caricature.

In fact, you feel in need of a wash after viewing the film.

By the violent end (within the family, not with the black neighbours), we realise that this is offered as an allegory of the decline of the presumptions, racial, religious and political, of the oppressive whites, their decay and their passing as a new South Africa emerges.

1. A South African perspective on apartheid and the 1990s? As a straight narrative? As an allegory?

2. The Johannesburg settings, the edges of the city, the 1990s, the poor whites, the blacks and the change after the fall of apartheid, the anticipation of the election? The musical score, the South African songs?

3. The impact for the audience? The disgust with so many of the issues? The characters and their behaviour? The pessimism? (And the performances, realistic of caricatured?)

4. Triomf as the area of Johannesburg, its being razed to the ground in the 1950s with the declaration of apartheid, the transferring of the black inhabitants? The rebuilding, the poor buildings? The lack of opportunity for the white inhabitants? The Afrikaner descent? Their attitudes towards the blacks? Faced with the election?

5. The initial focus on Treppie, his work, his appearance? Watching the black Africans, the campaigning, the singing? The newfound freedom and expression? His walking home, his encounter with Sonny? Going home, the introduction to the family?

6. The portrait of the family: Mol, her appearance, age, relationship with Pop, with Treppie? Her relationship with Lambert? The squalor of the house? Appearances, clothes? The way of life? Slapdash? Mol and Pop at the television, the concern about Lambert and his fits, the experience of the fits? The sexuality, Mol and Lambert and the crudity? Treppie and his observations? The preparation for Lambert’s birthday? Coinciding with the election?

7. The revelation of the truth about the family, brothers and sisters, the incest? The consequences of this inbreeding?

8. Cleo, Lambert preparing for her, Treppie building up the image? Tidying the house, the preparations, the food and drink? Cleo and her offhand manner? Boredom? Her reaction to Lambert, his talk, her wanting him to stop? The avoidance of the sexual encounter? His violence? The Coca-Cola?, the drinking? His overpowering her, her getting the keys, the escape? His having a fit? His family finding him?

9. Sonny, the visit, buying the gun, Lambert and the money? His playing with the gun? The bullets? His having the gun at the end, the confrontation with Treppie, wounding him? Killing Pop? Killing Treppie? The violent end to the family?

10. The family and the outings, Pop and Mol in the car, their joining the people dancing in the streets, their enjoying it? Going for the picnic at the top of the hill? Treppie and his reaction, sullenness?

11. The character of Mol in hindsight, a woman depressed, living in ugly conditions, relationship with her brother? Pop, seemingly genial, the potential for good? Treppie and his bitterness, his work? Lambert and his being spoilt?

12. The overall impact of the film, insights into South Africa – via a family living on the margins, facing more oppression? The change of attitude after the elections and the new South Africa?