Yesterday

Hey

I have read all the comments that were left about "Yesterday",and even though a lot of the thoughts were negative,let me just clear something up. I am a South African,born and raised,and currently living in the U.S.A.I have met a lot of Americans who are so naive about the conditions in South-Africa and Africa in general. It has been such an honor and shock for something from south Africa to be nominated for an Oscar and almost brought a lot of Africans together.Sure we did not win,but the point was clearly to point out what is really going on.and even though it is sad to admit but it is the truth.I read a comment where someone said that the characters were too "sainty" etc,but the truth is,that is rural life.They are naive and choose not to believe the doom of Aids. All we can hope for is that things get better and people get more educated as to the truth(although it might be difficult considering the fact that half the population does not finish high school and cannot read or write,how would they understand that a little virus in your bloodstream kills you???)

A lingering sideways tracking shot across a bare expanse of burnt, tussocky grass towards distant, shadowy mountains takes us into the first moments of Yesterday, the first film ever made in isiZulu. The quality of the film is apparent at once. The D.O.P. has a real aesthetic eye, and this opening shot, a beautifully judged and mesmerising piece of photography – accompanied by the inventive and idiosyncratic music of Madala Kunane, whose range of styles throughout the film is impressive – announces a film of strong images and expert direction (Director, Darrell Roodt). The shot comes to rest on the figures of two young Zulu girls, a mother and a daughter, as they amble slowly up a tortuously long road towards an unknown destination. The daughter asks simple questions - the type that make youth appear so endearingly innocent: "why am I not a bird? Then I could fly where we're going." It is a moment of beautiful, unforced poetry (the sort that self-conscious poets might do well to observe) and sets the tone for the film that is to come. Yesterday concerns one of the most pressing issues in Africa today, the spread of AIDS, which has in recent years reached epidemic proportions. From that premise, it soon becomes clear where the two travellers are headed: the nearest doctor. This trip is the beginning of a terrible descent – the progenitor of chain of scarifying revelations, the first of which is that the young mother – the title character, Yesterday (played sensitively by Leleti Khumbalo, ideally sympathetic casting with her angelic features) – is diagnosed with AIDS. As the film proceeds we witness how Yesterday deals with the horrifying burden of sickness in a society that is still largely ignorant of the causes of disease, and highly suspicious of those who succumb to it; and in a country whose government offers no real material or moral help for such extremity. Yesterday is an examination of life under the tyranny of the incurable. Nevertheless, the film eschews any overtly political comment (though there are a couple of scenes that tempt us to draw our own conclusions) and remains a purely personal story of a young woman's fight against the invincible. Yesterday is a young mother living in a small African village, trying to raise her daughter and give her the education that she herself was denied. She knows nothing of AIDS when the horror of knowledge is thrust upon her. But her natural perspicacity allows her to see clearly into the life of things, and as she faces the inevitability of premature death, she draws strength from within herself – though it is clear that Yesterday herself is little removed from the youthful innocence of her own daughter when she becomes inheritrix to the worst of the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. All that remains for her to do is try to shield her daughter from them. Events conspire against her, yet bolster her at the same time. A terrifying confrontation with her husband (a brilliant cameo, superbly played by Kenneth Khambula), the man who gave her AIDS, leads to a heart-rending reconcilement. Ostracism by her fellow villagers – who imagine the disease to be the result of some moral peccadillo – leaves her to fight the disease alone; but this itself leads to friendship with the village's rationally-minded and sympathetic schoolteacher (played by Harriet Lenabe). Death gives her a determination to live. In every case the bad engenders some good. In charting the effects of AIDS on the person and personality of this young woman (and, frighteningly graphically, in her husband) we see the human condition reach both its nadir and its zenith. The disease is at once catastrophically demoralising and vigorously ennobling. Yesterday's courage in the face of irremediable adversity is tearfully potent. She is a heroine in the true sense of performing heroic actions against the odds. Illness forces her to strength, fear engenders courage, and in the darkest oppression her spirit seems to soar. Yet the film never descends into self-pity. Rather, it makes clear that AIDS is simply a part of life in Africa – something that some people, at some time, will just have to deal with. Pity exists in that very coldness. The relationship which grows up between Yesterday and the teacher becomes the most important aspect of the film, because the teacher is in effect the only person in the district who understands what AIDS is; and because of that understanding, she able to evince compassion. Here, perhaps, is the film's agenda, its philosophical crux: a subtle plea for the dissemination of education and greater awareness in Africa, since only understanding can engender reason and humanity. It is a point that is not pushed, nor does it need to be, it speaks so eloquently for itself. As a moral fable, Yesterday is wonderfully judged. The decline of Yesterday's physical health becomes the ascension of her mental courage, and the strength of character she displays by the end of the film allows one to believe that the human being can rise above its own condition when it needs to. But the film does not stray into the cheapness of tearjerking. It remains firm, stark and moving in its own integrity.

Filmed on a microbudget, Yesterday relies on the potency of its own sombre story to push it forward, the stark beauty of its scenery, and the powerful performances of its cast. Shot with an unerring eye for detail and burgeoning with picturesque photography, it is surely one of the most profound and interesting films to be released this season. Yesterday is playing at cinemas nationwide.

An achingly beautiful film that is truly sublime in its simplicity. Leleti Khumalo, who plays "Yesterday", is utter enveloping to watch as she juggles her relationship with her daughter Beauty, her chores that are a matter of survival in the Zulu village, and her secret of a virus that will "stop her from living." Her strength and warmth in her vision of people even clouds her judgement when it comes to her relationship with her husband who works far away in Johannesburg. When the doctor at the clinic asks her how she got named "Yesterday," she answers: "It was my father. He always thought yesterday was better than today or tomorrow. But that was a long time ago."

Well, really just about living in Rural South Africa. Living in south Africa the HIV/AIDS pandemic (and governments response to it), can make one feel very depressed about the where South Africa is going. But this movie is quite uplifting. Yesterday faces a number of hardships already (she lives in relative poverty, separated from husband for most of year, no education), but she when she comes across another, HIV/AIDS, she faces it head on. She is determined to that her daughter will get an education. Because she has this to fight for, she stays positive. When the doctor comments on how well she is doing, she comments it is her mind that is strong, not her body. Mental strength is something needed all round SA in fighting the Pandemic. From patients, but also their communities, so that HIV positive people will find support rather than stigmatization.

I saw this movie on a plane from Johannesburg to New York. I found it riveting and intensely sad. The acting was superb and I felt the film really captured the tragedy that is the SA AIDS epidemic today. The music added to the poignancy of the story. I thought the film really brought home the SA situation in a way that no newspaper or TV documentary every could or ever has. I sobbed through this movie at times as the portrayal was so real, and the director managed to capture village life so excellently. Kudos to the writer, producer and the actors for creating a superb film - a real feather in the cap of the SA film world. This is a world class film that everyone should see!