Not another film about Aids!” It is a common reaction from local audiences somewhat overexposed to big health issues via television. Then there is acclaimed local director Darryl Roodt’s latest film Yesterday.
“A film like this, bizarrely, hasn’t been made before,” Roodt says. Come to think of it, he’s right. Despite the pandemic in South Africa, can you recall ever seeing a full-length film featuring an HIV-positive protagonist?
Roodt began his career in the mid-1980s with anti-apartheid-themed features such as Place of Weeping, The Stick and Sarafina! Later, with the backing of long-time associate Anant Singh, he would graduate to directing international stars James Earl Jones and Richard Harris in Ronald Harwood’s screen adaptation of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country in 1995.
Passionate and eager to talk, Roodt is not defensive in the least when one puts forward some of the reactions to his film: “I understand that people can be patronising. It’s a deceptively simple story but is far more complex than people might assume it is.”
The story is a softly woven but tragic tale of a woman resonantly called Yesterday (played by the incandescent Leleti Khumalo), living in the remote rural village of Rooihoek in Zululand, who discovers that her husband (Kenneth Kambule), a miner, has infected her with HIV. She knows that she will inevitably die, especially after he returns home to be nursed to a terrible death in a makeshift shed built by the stricken Yesterday. She, however, has resolved to stay alive until her daughter Beauty (Lilhe Mvelase) is old enough to go to school.
Yesterday must contend with being stigmatised by her community — her only support being a friend and local teacher (Harriet Lehabe).
The film could be the tragic tale of so many South African women. Roodt, however, didn’t necessarily set out to make a film about HIV. “I wanted to base a film around the person that you might drive past on a dusty road who has been walking for three hours,” he explains.
Yesterday has to walk for hours to a clinic to see the doctor, the only white character in the film. “Getting water is a simple chore. Even when she gets really sick, she still hoes the field; chops wood … it puts our own lives into perspective,” says Roodt. It humbles not by manipulating guilt, but rather by evoking compassion. It jerks one out of blinkeredness and gives a valuable peephole into lives other than our own — something not always pleasant or comfortable.
The first feature film ever to be shot entirely in Zulu, Roodt initially wrote the film in English and then had it translated. “I’ve been harping on for years about making films in the language pertinent to the story — then not only will it be truthful, but you can sell it globally as an art movie.”
Produced by Singh’s Videovision production house, backed by M-Net (which gave them R1,5-million as part of its eight-movie project), and associated with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Roodt says that he was free to make the film that he wanted, without interference, despite the many agendas that surface when dealing creatively with the subject of HIV/Aids.
Although he initially had to convince Singh that it was a good idea to make the film in Zulu, it has paid off. “It wasn’t a remotest challenge directing in Zulu,” says Roodt. “I was surprised how easy it was, actually. I knew when they stumbled, I could feel it.”
The four-week shoot took place in the northern Drakensberg. Roodt set out to depict “the harsh reality of the story, juxtaposed against beautiful surroundings”. From every shot of the landscape to each close-up of Khumalo’s face, Yesterday testifies to the skill of local filmmaking in its attention to detail.
Offering no easy solutions, or quick fixes, Yesterday is a contradictory mix of hopefulness and despair. “Isn’t that life though?” asks Roodt, adding, “Life sucks, but here’s this woman trying to stay alive. It’s the brutality of life. African culture has natural buoyancy, even in dire circumstances. It’s kind of bittersweet I guess …”
Yesterday is not a message movie. It is not propaganda, sentimental or preachy. It’s merely a story. An exceptionally good one, directed with immense skill and sensitivity. Its international distribution has been picked up by HBO films. In September Yesterday will begin its life on the festival circuit with showings at the Venice and Toronto international film festivals.
Now all the work requires is that local audiences don’t prejudge it because of its delicate subject matter. “I tried to avoid being moralistic at all costs,” asserts Roodt. “My only aim with this film is to stimulate debate, not solve the problems of the world.”
He has already begun shooting his latest project, called Fate’s Corner, also starring Khumalo. This time the plot is about orphans forced on to the streets.
He describes it as “Hardcore. Rabbit Proof Fence meets Reservoir Dogs.” No light relief here. Roodt seems to be committed to local realities — combining current issues with a tried-and-tested formula.