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Contemporary World Cinema
Director: Donovan Marsh
A satisfying and suspenseful DIY action drama from the dark, dingy, and dangerous slums of Soweto, this crooked cops and honourable thieves heist flick is clearly a labour of love for all involved, which normally spells doom, but it’s so well acted and written that the spirit is infectious.
After putting his life on the line to secure convictions for a gang he spent two years getting close to, a stylish undercover cop (S’dumo Mtshali) gets screwed out of a much needed reward by his unethical boss. With the help of a beat cop friend (Presley Chweneyagae), the duo infiltrate another gang that’s about to pull off an armoured car heist. Only really wanting their cut, the pair get in too deep when it turns out that the team they’ve aligned themselves with is a nightmare of clashing personalities that will never get along long enough to pull off the job.
While the action is confined largely to the opening sequence and the final non-stop forty minutes, Marsh tells a different kind of caper. Instead of focusing on the minutae of a heist that most people would question if they thought about it, he’s making sure that all of his characters are fully realized, strong, and containing their own specific motives. It adds a layer of investment and suspense that most genre films tend to forget about. Even seemingly minor characters have important parts to play in Marsh’s machinery.
Also, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
Screens
Thursday, September 12th, Scotiabank 2, 6:00pm
Friday, September 13th, Scotiabank 4, 11:30am
Saturday, September 14th, Scotiabank 13, 9:15pm
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