Five Fingers for Marseilles

Films coming out of South Africa are getting better & better. Last week i watched Catching Feelings and it was good. Yesterday i had to watch this one, who wouldn't after seeing the trailer and poster ? This film reminded me of Bruce Willis' 1996 cowboy movie Last Man Standing because they are alike. Difference is Fiver Fingers for Marseilles is not as straight forward and at 2 hours long it seems like 3 because the pacing is slow. The setting up of characters in this case epilogue is around 20 minutes. Then everything seem puzzling and you will ask yourself why, how, when. The biggest flaw is the script. It was written by a certain Sean Drummond who i presume is an English speaker and then given to a translator who did direct translation resulting in some dialogue/sayings/phrases being lost in the process. I don't even speak South African languages but i picked some of it. The other flaw is the casting. The younger Lerato of about 14 years old is light skinned (popularly known as yellow bones) as an adult woman she is now darker skinned which never happens thereby not making sense. It is mistakes like these that turn local audiences off because we feel we are being taken for granted. The bright side is the main cast is just brilliant. I had doubts about Vuyo Dabula's acting chops in Generations because he is one dimensional but now i am convinced he has talent. Hamilton Dhlamini who plays the villain is just magnificent that you would think he came out of a Hollywood horror movie. Veteran Kenneth Nkosi and newbie Zethu don't disappoint.

Keep it up guys.

This glossy South African feature exhibits stunning cinematography and locations. The concept as well is ingenious, and most of the performances appropriately portrayed. The idea f a western style movie with all the trimmings, but set in South Africa was most interesting.

The dialogue I felt did not quite support the standard of the rest of the production value and the script lagged at times. Possibly the performances of this talented cast could have been more riveting if the dialogue was tighter. However generally the story was good enough to retain interest to the conclusion, which seems to be the general concensus of viewer reviews.

All in all an enjoyable feature, with a powerful portrayal of the protagonist Tau who portrayed the character authentically, and one a viewer would root for. That was portrayed with the appropriate menace, an actor who similarly excelled in the SA feature Vaya.

Definitely one to watch, particularly if you are a fan of Westerns with a difference, and a director to keep your eye on in the future.

NB: If you're Sotho, the accent and bad vocabulary will put you off. I'm glad I was told this before watching, so I went in prepared and told myself to ignore this.

Viewing quality - The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and the cameraman wasn't stingy at all. During scenes, the panning is very clean. The night shots aren't so great for me though. They were a little restrictive with the lighting. The colour scheme shows that the town has warm weather, however, I wish the night lighting would resemble shots like these[goo.gl/Njhfg7]. The night scenes should have been nice, crisp, night shots, but with a warm feel instead of the cold blue like the image on that link. I've noticed that a lot of South African films are a little behind when it comes to lighting.

Storyline - I will not be giving away much, but it's about a boy from a small oppressed town, who had to run away from his neighbourhood after doing something really bad and returned home as an adult only to find that the oppression hasn't changed - It is the oppressors who have changed. I'll refrain from adding to this to avoid giving spoilers.

Quality of play - Apart from the accent, the acting and film quality was perfect. There are quite a few mysteries that make you feel like it would be a good idea to watch the movie again, but not at the cinema. It doesn't feel like a rush.

Movie conclusion (my version) - You live by the gun, you die by the gun - Hence the constant and explicit 'voilence' references throughout the movie. The scene about the pastor at the very end sealed it for me. If you haven't watched you'll have to watch to understand.

Sigh.. Okay about the Sesotho - I think Michael Matthews disregarded the fact that a bad accent can affect a movie negatively. I'm not sure if the target market is international, but South Africans, including non-Sotho speaking South Africans could hear that the accent was very off. This was with almost all the actors, including the main actors. It seems like the line-up was more important though. After all, seeing who is starring is has a lot of people interested in the movie. If only the actors spoke proper Sesotho.

The visuals are great, the story watchable. An interesting study on how early childhood trauma can affects an individual psyche later in life, and how it affects different people in different ways/

The lead actor delivers a powerful convincing performance, as do most of the cast, even when the story lags as it does in parts. It would have been interesting to see a little more intra and interpersonal conflict, and I feel if this had been scripted, the story would have been riveting.

The landscape as a character is breathtaking, and supports the mood of the story beautifully. I wonder, will a sequel follow? I would certainly watch a sequel expecting this creative team to deliver an even better story!

Rushing toward the police car that has crashed in nearby brush, Tau races to rescue Lerato from the back of the police vehicle. As he nears the car, a white policeman slowly gets out of the car and is holding Lerato who is being held by gunpoint. This intense scene is just a glimpse of the suspenseful western, Five Fingers for Mareilles, which has proven to be a revolutionary piece of South African cinematography directed by the talented Michael Matthews. Matthews has decided to stay true to the South African culture, picking the native language as the movie's main dialogue and hiring a crop of new South African actors who are remarkable. Vuyo Dabula, who plays the Tau, the lion on Mareilles impressed me with an engaging performance that immersed me into his adventure of saving his hometown from the clutches of the feared Sepoko and his gang. The movie takes a twist on the bildungs roman genre, giving the audience a glimpse into South African society through the growth of the five fingers, the childhood clique Tau was a part of before an unfortunate event caused his life to spiral. The cinematography is stunning, prioritizing wide shots and muted colors to represent the open landscape of rural South Africa. It takes the classic spaghetti western genre and makes the movie its own, being modern through the use of parallels and breaking down racial walls with featuring a mostly all black cast that was phenomenal. I will be waiting for more work to feature Dabula as he gives an emotional performance, making an impact on me throughout his performance in the film.