In a bit of a random coincidence, I’ve seen two African productions this week. One in the cinema, District 9, and the other on stage, Zambezi Express. Whilst both being African in origin, they couldn’t be further apart…
I thought District 9 was a tremendous film, particularly in the execution of the visuals and audio. It’s a pretty obvious, yet still powerful, allegory of apartheid in South Africa, but instead of a clash between blacks and whites, the subjugated party in the film is a society of alien refugees who arrived in Johannesburg 20 years ago.
The plot revolves around attempts to move them from their cordoned off slum on the outskirts of Johannesburg to a new [concentration] camp 200km away, but quickly moves off on a tangent and follows the new path for the rest of the film. It’s a satisfying plot, but anyone who’s seen a few thrillers and action films won’t be thrown off by any unexpected twists.
All of the human actors are South African, and you get used to the accent within minutes. The main character in particular has a very strong accent, and his pronunciation of “fuck” as “fook” is amusing the first time, but you barely notice it by the end.
The aliens are a revelation, both in CGI and animatronic forms. Their movement is a joy to watch, and even in the jerky, documentary-style camerawork you struggle to find any false moments or totally unrealistic images. Up close, they’re equally impressive, although the filmmakers have relied upon scraps of clothing and symbols to really make each one stand out from the crowd.
The alien speech is subtitled, although the humans in the film can understand them. I’d love to believe that their language is consistent throughout, and that certain geeks are already putting together a dictionary for it, like Klingon or Elfish.
It’s a very beautifully shot film, somehow making the slums of Johannesburg look quite beautiful. Heavy use of sunrise and sunset shots helped that out, along with the aforementioned mockumentary camerawork.
The film strikes me as being a little unsure as to whether it wants to be a strong political satire, an action gunfest, or just a commentary on apartheid as a whole. It does all three, without really excelling at one or the other.
I’d recommend seeing it, if only to see just how far Peter Jackson’s Weta special effects company have come since Gollum in LOTR. The integration of the aliens in their surroundings is truly remarkable.
Tonight, however, I was at Hammersmith Riverside Studios to see Zambezi Express, a musical performed by a dance troupe from Zimbabwe.
Admittedly, the plot was paper-thin and could be summed up in less than a tweet, but it wasn’t really about that anyway. It was about the music, the dancing, the singing, the sheer energy of it all.
As the strapline on the programme cover puts it, this is “the happiest show on Earth”. Yes, that’s a little Disney-esque, but it’s more from pure enthusiasm than any really cynical marketing ploy.
The singing and acting was in three languages, pretty much randomly dropping in and out of each one as they went. Obviously, I only understood the English bit, but the girlfriend speaks some Shona, and could tell that the other was Ndebele. Apparently the lyrics and words were the same across all three anyway, and to be honest the plot barely needed any real explanation vocally of what was going on.
The passion of the music and dancing were what hooked me though. It was relentlessly upbeat and fast, with groups of dancers coming off and on stage constantly. It struck me that African dancing (or at least dancing of this kind) is very highly charged, sexually. They really don’t mess around when it comes to thrusting hips, bums, chests, groins or anything that can be thrust.
It was a really enjoyable evening, and a high-class production. You can tell that it’s a dance/performance troupe doing a play, rather than a cast assembled for a musical, but that doesn’t detract from the impact and cultural experience of it all.
