Germany, South Africa – Drama – English, Other
Directed by Oliver Schmitz
Screenplay Written by Dennis Foon
Based on the Novel “Chanda's Secrets” by Allan Stratton
Casting by Moonyeen Lee
Cinematography by Bernhard Jasper
Cast: Khomotso Manyaka (Chanda), Lerato Mvelase (Lilian), Harriet Manamela (Mrs. Tafta), Audrey Poolo (Jonah), Keaobaka Makanyane (Ester), Mapaseka Mathebe (Iris), Thato Kgaladi (Soly)
With breath-taking pictures, superior linear narrative, and heart-touching performances, Life, Above All, which saw it's world premiere as an Official Selection of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, has now found its way onto my personal list of films that possess Un Certain Regard.
Life, Above All is directed by Oliver Schmidtz, the South African director of the famed Paris, J'taime which spawned the Cities of Love franchise which produced New York, I Love You a plans for similar films for Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Jerusalem, Venice, and Timbuktu. The film is based on the novel “Chanda's Secrets” by Allan Stratton and and received standing ovations and tears at its recent world premiere in Cannes.
In a living testament to the industry move towards international collaborations, the film is produced as a collaboration between Germany and South Africa and the actors deliver lines in both English and a native South African language.
Though the tile of the film is “Life, Above All”, the story ironically begins with death and a funeral. Chanda, a bright young girl on the cusp of adolescence, lives with her steadfast mother, Lilian (Lerato Mvelase); low-life stepfather, Jonah (Audrey Poolo), and younger siblings Iris (Mapaseka Mathebe), Soly (Thato Kgaladi), and Sarah. In the opening scenes, Sarah, Chanda's baby sister, dies and suspicions begin to mount on all sides of the family. Jonah, in his drunken grief, claims that Lilian poisoned Sarah with her breast milk, and abandons the family with no money or provider. A prominent villager, Mrs. Tafta (Harriet Manamela) advises the family to pretend like nothing is wrong so that other people don't “think you have problems”.
After months of absence, Jonah is brought back to Lilian's doorstep and dumped out of a wheelbarrow by his own sister. Thin, sickly, and too weak to stand, he is surrounded by the suspicious neighbors and publicly disowned. The family's “problems” can not longer be denied: they have been touched by the taboo of AIDS.
As he reaches out for pity from Dudu, his former party-pal and lover, but she screams, “I don't know you. You're a dead man. A skeleton.” Livid fear glints in her eyes as she denies the existence of her former affair in an attempt to deny the possibility that she, too, is infected.
The narrative continues to unfold as Lilian also grows weaker by day and Chanda must face the derision of her neighbors to care for her family. In the process, she has to sacrifice her schooling and childhood to face the grim realities of AIDS and the violent superstitions that accompany it in her small South African village.
Worth noting in this film is the work of Casting Director Moonyeen Lee. With a script that calls for a dynamic female lead under the age of 13, as well as other strong supporting child characters, Lee's task for finding actors capable of delivering a message about AIDS, orphanage, child prostitution, ostracisment, and death was not an easy one.
Actress Mapaseka Mathebe as Iris plays her role as a rebellious and taunting younger sister with ease, which sets up the desperation Chanda feels when she is left alone to care for her siblings, but has no control over vindictive Iris. When the villagers panic thinking that Iris has fallen into a well, Chanda finds Iris hiding in the shadows. In a poignant moment between sisters, Iris apologizes for her disobedience, and with a hug, accepts Chanda's role as her new authority figure in lieu of a mother or father.
Novice Keaobaka Makanyane plays Ester, Chanda's best friend who has been orphaned by AIDS and is shunned by the village. The girls are opposites: Chanda a serious student and Ester a carefree school-skipper. However, it is their strong bond survives as one of the most hopeful things at the end of the film. Midway through the film, Esther succumbs to the tragedy of child prostitution, forced to sell herself to truckers to survive. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the entire film, Esther returns to Chanda's house having been bloodied and beaten by three men. Despite having to cover subjects even too heavy for many adults to breach, Makanyane delivers a believable performance that had the power to move me to tears.
Khomotso Manyaka's performance as the lead Chanda is no less remarkable. She encounters the issues of death, abandonment, and loss with the resolve of someone twice her age and communicates an undying loyalty to her mother, traveling miles across dusty country alone in search of Lilian when she disappears from the family. Bottom line: Manyaka is an absolute revelation in the film, and brings a truth and honesty to the screen that I haven't seen from such a young actor since the performance by then 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider.
As the quiet campaign again Chanda and her family gains momentum, the film exposes the village as culture steeped in religious-fueled superstition. Mrs. Tafta, who is a leader in the village church, even reverts to mystical suspicions as Lilian's sickness progresses. She hires a witch doctor who comes to cleanse the house and ends up “pulling” a snake out of Lilian's torso and claiming she is infested with an evil spirit.
Later, when Chanda goes searching for Lilian at her grandmother's house, the old woman claims that Lilian has always brought shame upon her family and that her present sickness is a sign of “divine punishment” for her erring ways (i.e. marrying a man, Chanda's father and her first husband, of whom the family did not approve). The film is a testament to the misunderstandings are still ingrained ins South African culture in regards to AIDS. Like leprosy in the Middle Ages when villages would perform symbolic funerals for those who contracted the disease before eternally banishing them from society, AIDS in South Africa is seen as an “untouchable” disease, something which can tarnish an entire family in its path of destruction.
Amidst the tale of tragedy, the film is still Chanda's, a document of her unusual coming-of-age and a picture or her extraordinary soul. In a poignant moment between mother and daughter, Lilian and Chanda gaze in a mirror together as Lilian marvels at her child and breathes, “You amaze me.” I'll give that a resounding, “Agreed.”
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