By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Ramadan Suleman
Starring: Mpumi Malatsi | Pamela Nomvete | Sophie Mgcina
Original language title: Lettre d'amour zoulou
Country: france, germany, south_africa
Year: 2004
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369664/combined
Bruce says: “In the 1960’s many South African men went into exile leaving the women to raise the children. Supposedly 80% of South African leaders were brought up by single mothers. The writer and director of ZULU LOVE LETTER were on hand at the Toronto International Film Festival, describing their film as homage to all the black South African mothers who took on the burdens of parenthood single-handedly. Many of these women still do not have closure when it comes to dealing with the deaths of their children.
“Thandi, the central character, is a well educated black reporter for a Jo’berg paper. She thinks the paper is selling out to the white man and is not properly covering the issues of reparation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A former activist, she cannot let go of that mindset even though her major goal of abolishing apartheid has been achieved. She wants to punish those who have inflicted pain on South Africans although they have been granted amnesty as part of the move towards democracy. A clean slate, some call it.
“Thandi has an eleven year old daughter who is deaf and needs special attention. There is no doubt she loves her daughter but it is Thandi’s parents and her ex-husband who are actually doing most of the child rearing. In fact, Thandi has never gotten around to achieving proficiency status in sign language so her communication with her daughter is constantly compromised. At times she speaks to or yells at her daughter forgetting to sign; then her daughter has to remind her mother of her deafness. On one occasion Thandi gets out of her car to join a protest march leaving her daughter stranded for hours in the schoolyard.
“Thandi is an attractive, sexually active woman. She has boyfriends who she claims don’t understand her. Her daughter claims that her mother doesn’t understand herself. Part of the problem between mother and daughter relates to Thandi’s ex husband being Indian rather than a black South African. He is a sweet man and good father; Thandi views him as an enemy. In so many ways Thandi is insensitive to all those around her, she prioritizes poorly and she tends to blame everyone else for her own shortcomings. In addition, she has an extraordinary burden of guilt, not for her own actions, but for her inability to fight harder and affect greater change in the political landscape.
“One day an old lady from Soweto comes to Thandi’s office at the newspaper and asks that Thandi help find her dead daughter’s bones. Without the physical evidence of her daughter’s death, she cannot have closure. Thandi investigates and discovers a mass grave where the daughter’s remains probably rest. Thandi also relives her own role in the same riot that killed the woman’s daughter. At the time of the riots Thandi was pregnant and, while serving jail time, was kicked and beaten which resulted in her child’s deafness. The closing scene is a memorial service for the old lady’s daughter. Everyone, including Thandi… [the remainder of Bruce’s review was lost…]
“Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.”