Fools

While being South Africa's first all-black feature film is significant in and of itself. Fools'is also noteworthy on a number of other cinematic levels. Devoid of an overtly political sloganeering-type narrative, and following Ndebele's narrative, the film explores the private and interior nature of black life in South Africa on a more nuanced. human level. Above and opposite: Stills from Foots, 1998. • n the last decade, anti-apartheid films with South Africa as a backdrop, I have generally been English language, Hollywood productions, with I white protagonists, often played by big-name Hollywood actors. The I narrative of the films usually focuses on the exteriority of the struggle • against apartheid. Fools, a new film by Ramadan Suleiman, based on Njabulo Ndebele's Noma-award winning novella of the same name, thoroughly bucks this trend. Initiated by a black production company, with a black director and black characters at the center of the narrative, Fools is, as its scriptwriter, Bhekisizwe Peterson says, "unashamedly about black township life." While being South Africa's first all-black feature film is significant in and of itself, Fools is also noteworthy on a number of other cinematic levels . Devoid ol an overtly political, sloganeering-type narrative, and following Ndebele's narrative, the film explores the private and interior nature of black life in South Africa on a more nuanced, human level. The humanistic treatment of the characters, while at times undermined by a stilted naivete, manages to convey something of the contradictions in the apartheid-era social fabric. Fools confronts these contradictions, as well as issues of alienation — particularly those that arise out of generational differences — as well as the socio-political consequences of rape. Set in Charteston township on the East Rand of Johannesburg, Fools centers on the chance meeting of the two protagonists: the middle-aged teacher and rapist Duma Zamani (Patrick Shai), fatigued and paralyzed by his own fear and insecurity, and the brother of the rape victim, Zani Vuthela (Hlomla Dandala), an idealistic political activist just graduated from high school in Swaziland. From this meeting at a train station, the two men engage in a process of individual and social re-examination of selfRory Be ste r identity and social responsibility, and their subsequent struggle for meaning and identity in Iate-I980s South Africa. Zamani's deteriorated marriage, his solicitation of back-alley sex workers, alcoholism and nightmarish guilt all contribute to a powerful characterization of the alienated anti-hero on a journey towards self-redemption . Patrick Shai, sometimes awkward in his portrayal of Zamani's cocksureness - capably delivers a performance that brings out the protagonist 's more vulnerable moments in a manner that did not detract from the decidedly anti-heroic demeanor of the character. Shai's performance is crucial because it is through Zamani's character that the film ultimately gives a sense of proportion to the textured social fabric of black Township. The film also explores the gaps that exist in the face ol urban alienation, as well as a spirited investigation of some of the paradoxes and contradictions in apartheid-era township life. The aspect of township life captured in Fools is one of a pervading sense of paralysis and passivity, especially towards the struggle against apartheid and the social decay wrought in its wake. Rape is but one of those powerfully debilitating social problems, the silence that surrounds it, and the seemingly tacit acceptance of it by the community. This was made clear early on in the film, in a scene where Zamani is let off with a mere reprimand by the community's elders for raping one of his pupils. The elders' endorsement of the crime only perpetuates the process of seeming victimization already effected by apartheid. However, the response to Zamani's actions is driven (and to some extent justified) by the reality of a shortage of black teachers in the apartheid education system. While the narrative raises Questions concerning the complicity and culpability of the elders (and, by implication, the community) in Zamani's actions, it by no means Fall/Winter 1998 Nka«21 Above and Below: Fools, 1998, film still. "On a political level/' says Bekisizwe Peterson...