Jerusalema

Lucky is a young black man in South Africa, who feels the oppression of apartheid. Once the apartheid ends, though... the life for blacks gets no easier. In his own form of affirmative action, he helps grow a large, powerful gang to get ahead. Is it right or wrong, and was it necessary?

Ralph Ziman is a director from South Africa. While he started of in music video, once he came into his own, he told the tale of South Africa with a passion that no one else has yet matched. Recent films like "Invictus" or "District 9" try to capture the spirit, and in some ways do, but Ziman has it inside him and has the talent to let it out.

I must say, there was an unfortunate naming choice with "Gangster's Paradise", and this gives it a cheaper feel. The original title, "Jerusalema", was more than adequate and gives the film a mature moniker that it richly deserves. I am not sure who felt American audiences couldn't handle the original title, but they have done the film a great disservice.

We have seen our share of South Central Los Angeles gang movies. Here is a film that has parallels, but offers an interesting moral perspective on a racial, global issue. Can you empathize with a thieving thug? If you watch this film, you just might.

I have just watched the movie for the first time just this past Friday, I was blown away and touched by it. i don't know if there is such a thing as a good thief, but I fell in love with Rapulano in this movie all over again, for me it had that James Bond element, except that his black and a thief, but that untouchable notion of 0007... Great story and acting. I felt sad for the white chick (grilfriend), not because of her colour, but as a women I could relate, when you think you know somebody but and realising that you don't and in such a matter is just so painful....., but on another hand....there was that element for me, of our black brothers going for white chicks... when they are loaded....even though in this movie that wasn't what brought them together.... interesting story indeed...

A movie that speaks to the core of the human spirit. As much as the movie is South African, anyone who has been faced with hardship will relate. Our dreams, when they shatter and fade painfully silently and the dark talents we discover in desperation for a moment to live the life we once aspired to. Seiphemo, Zekele and the supporting cast are brilliant on a script that pulls no punches, with impeccable direction. The overall execution leaves no vague on what goes wrong and how it becomes celebrated as fruits of crime are reaped and shared by even the most moral in our lives. South African cinema has moved to the next stage in evolution i.e. reflection on some of the darker sides of the new South Africa. A masterpiece.

If Jerusalema, the latest film about life in South Africa's underbelly of Hillbrow, can make a film like the award winning Tsotsi look like child's play, you need to ask yourself the question: "Why haven't I seen it yet?" Even more disturbing is that Jerusalema premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and has already been raking in the awards.

Star of the film - Lucky Kunene's motto in life is taken from an Al Capone movie "If you're going to steal ... steal big, and hope like hell you get away with it!" Like a fly on the wall, we get to watch how an innocent youth from Soweto, a victim of circumstance, turns to crime and works his way up to become the hoodlum of Hillbrow.

The acting is superb and will have you engrossed in the film in no time. The script is watertight, and quite probably the most accurate account of South Africa's criminal underworld that you're ever going to see.

The scary part about all of this? It's based on true events! (But don't be put off SA, this is a small part of a big country)

Saw Jerusalema last weekend. I found the film to be an engaging, moving, and important reminder that the strangest worlds are right under our noses. Fast paced, gritty and in your face

I loved Rapulana Simpiwe in the lead, a stunning young talent, Jafta Mamabolo who played the young Kunene is fantastic.

The script is excellent, reassuringly tight and Carried me effortlessly through the journey.

This is the story of how a intelligent kid with the same hopes and dreams as anyone else; an education, work hard, get a degree and live his dreams through legitimate means, succumbs, despite himself, to a life of crime because it is his only course available.

It accurately portrays the universal genesis of crime and loss of innocence and righteousness (the symbol of which of course was the mother with her hand pressed tightly on her bible).

I don't know what's happening with the film in terms of its international release, but I would sincerely hope that many others will have the memorable experience that we did.