DRAWING hearty applause, and a standing ovation from some, at a packed Durban cinema at Suncoast Casino, South African film-maker Jahmil XT Qubeka’s controversial third feature, Of Good Report, finally made it to the screen for the first time on Sunday, following its unbanning on Saturday.
The good news is that, whether you agree with the Film and Publication Board’s banning last week over the film containing what the board considers child pornography – and this reviewer is of the opinion that the scenes in question, seen in context, are not – Of Good Report remains a remarkable film by a young talent who has the potential to go far.
Scheduled for release on the commercial circuit on Friday, the film is written and directed by Qubeka, and is compelling and affecting; but not, by any means, an easy film to watch.
Sketching an increasingly dark, sombre and uncomfortable story that nods to Vladmir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita, as well as films inspired by it, the thriller is shot in dramatic black and white.
Qubeka told yesterday’s audience in a question-and-answer session that he did this to create a timeless feel for his story and play with the conventions of 1950s Hollywood.
He also favoured monochrome, he said, because his story gets to make use of a lot of blood... and he isn’t kidding. There is also a rather gross opening scene involving maggots being pulled from a scalp and, later, a man vomiting into a surgical mask, so black and white works for me.
The focus is on a man of seemingly good report – a gentle, taciturn high school teacher, Parker Sithole (a remarkable performance by Mothusi Magano, who has featured in Tsotsi and Hotel Rwanda, as well as television’s The Lab).
On the evening of his first day at a new school, where he is to teach a Grade 9 class, Parker meets Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma), a beautiful and flirtatious young woman, at a local shebeen and has a night of passion with her in the corrugated iron shack he rents.
The next day, however, he realises she is a 16-year-old in his class, and he is shaken.
But his desire for her devours him and soon leads to trouble, some wild hallucinations as his mental state deteriorates, and a gruesome killing with a disturbing aftermath.
Qubeka sometimes teeters towards becoming pretentious – an extreme close-up of an ear hammers a point too literally, for example – but mostly directs with style and panache.
He draws good performances from his cast (bar a hammy hot-potato-mouth actress in the film’s final scene) and shows a keen eye for striking visuals, many from flourishes of fantasy and eerie, recurring scenes involving an old woman smoking.
He also makes superb use of an unusual, unsettling soundtrack by Philip Miller, one that combines voice sounds, cries and random instrumentation to heighten tension.
The film features Tina Jaxa (Eve in television’s Madam & Eve) as the school principal and Lee-Ann van Rooi as a policewoman who starts to smell a rat with Parker and leads the plot in a new direction.
An intense and rewarding film with much artistic merit, leaving a lasting impression, it deserves an audience. - The Mercury
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