Another touch of heaven for local cinema

IT'S probably a little premature to say that the golden age of South African cinema is upon us, but there are some encouraging signs that the local film industry is on the uptake.

The latest of these is Izulu Lami (which translates as "my secret sky" or "my heaven") a film by writer and director Madoda Ncayiyana that is being hailed as South Africa's own Slumdog Millionaire.

When their mother dies, 10-year-old Thembi (Soba-hle Mkhabase) and her eight-year-old brother, Khwezi (Sibonelo Malinga), are left in the care of their cruel Aunt Jabu in their rural homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

Eager to capitalise on the situation, Aunt Jabu dispenses with the mourning period and sets about selling her dead relatives' possessions, including her prized collection of handwoven mats.

But unbeknownst to her, Thembi hangs on to her mother's most cherished mat (decorated with the moon and stars), remembering a white priest who once expressed an interest in buying it.

When there's nothing left to sell and Aunt Jabu simply abandons the two kids, it's off to Durban on a big-city adventure to find the priest.

But the adventure quickly turns sour when they take up with a glue-sniffing gang of street kids, led by the aptly named thug Chili Bite, who live in an underground shelter and rob street vendors and beg for a living.

For naive Thembi, her mother's mat is their ticket to a new life, but Chili Bite knows that their chances of success are slim.

It's a heartbreaking realisation that finally dawns on Thembi and Khwezi in a harrowing scene where she becomes the victim of a kidnapping and an attempted rape from a man who hopes to cure himself of Aids.

But there is hope.

The comparison to last year's Oscar-winning smash hit Slumdog is not unfounded.

This ably directed film also takes an unflinching look at the extreme poverty that ravages large swathes of the country, and it throws light on some uncomfortable realities - like no-parent families - that are becoming increasingly prevalent in the wake of the Aids pandemic.

But, like that film, gritty realism ultimately gives way to a wish-fulfilment fantasy.

While the moral of Slumdog Millionaire was that love conquers all, Izulu becomes a parable about how everything's gonna be OK, so long as your ancestors are watching.

That Thembi and Khwezi's salvation comes in the form of an informal contract to produce handcrafted wire ornaments for whites doesn't make for the most satisfying payoff.

But it's easy to overlook this flaw, even if it just to behold the prodigious talent of its breakout star, Sobahle Mkhabase, who has already won a best-actress award at the Tarifa film festival in Spain.