There are few South African films that have been as daring in their choice of narrative style as first-time director Oliver Hermanus’s Shirley Adams.
The viewer spends much of the movie staring at the back of the head of the eponymous protaganist — played with deft and motherly gravitas by Denise Newman, who delivers a formidable performance.
Yet, instead of inducing a somÂnambulist lurch to the toilet for a vomit, the largely hand-held camera work deepens the intimacy of this piece of fine social-realist filmmaking and immerses the viewer in the claustrophobia of the main characters’ lives.
Shirley Adams is a Cape Flats mother who is barely managing to keep her family together. Her husband disappeared months before and her son, Donovan (Keenan Arrison), is sliding quickly towards suicide after being rendered paraplegic by a gangster’s bullet en route home from school.
Unemployed and unable to arrest Donovan’s psychological decline, Shirley is flailing through her life, although she is determined not to lose the little she has left.
Her savings have been spent on medical bills and she shoplifts to feed herself and Donovan.
When perky blonde occupational therapist Tamsin Ranger (Emily Childs) enters their lives, there is hope that she will distract Donovan from his disability.
But Tamsin’s eager interventions at times serve only to highlight the class differences that exist between the Mitchells Plain family and Donovan’s new caregiver.
It also sharpens Shirley’s own sense of matriarchal inadequacy: at one point Tamsin suggests to Shirley that Donovan needs more fruit and fish in his diet.
Barely capable of putting stolen bread on the table, Shirley snaps: “Do you see any fish here?”
Shirley is told that Donovan’s case is finally set for trial, but she is distraught to discover in court that her son’s shooter is a childhood friend.
She resolves not to tell Donovan about this new piece of information — afraid of his unstable emotional state — and continues to attempt to duct tape their lives together as best she can.
Shirley Adams is a studied portrait of a mother that marks the precocious 27-year-old Hermanus as a stand-out talent in South Africa’s cinematic landscape.
The director, who was “discovered” by Hollywood blockbuster merchant Roland Emmerich and studied at the London Film School, also recently completed a residency at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation programme in Paris.
The film addresses themes of race, violence and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa, yet these are subtle accompaniments to this story of a mother, which is ultimately a uniÂversal tale of familial love and struggle.
Hermanus says he first came across the character of Shirley Adams at his own family’s dinner table when his sister, an occupational therapist, described the indefatigable nature of a mother in one of her cases.
Hermanus’s narrative techniques in Shirley Adams — based on anti-drama, kitchen-sink realism and a propensity for stark filmmaking devoid of music — is reminiscent of the filmmaking of the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc (The Child, The Silence of Lorna) and Ken Loach (My Name is Joe).
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian at the 2009 Durban International Film Festival, where Shirley Adams scooped the awards for Best South African Film, Best First Time Feature and the Best Actress, Hermanus said he went in search of a method that would uplift rather than depress: “I wanted to avoid the heavy-handed approach to dealing with redemption, loss and forgiveness, which seems to plague South African cinema.”
Shirley Adams is difficult yet essential viewing.