Last night I attended the JOZI movie premier. A local movie production by Videovision Entertainment, and thankfully without the slapstick.
The premier was star studded with the talented cast of JOZI, which created a much needed out- of -the -ordinary buzz from your usual Tuesday movie night. It was awesome to see Kajal Bagwandeen on the big screen, she was featured on Eish Magazine's second issue cover and clearly kept to her goals of wanting to be a big screen star, having conquered theatre productions locally.
Lead male character, Carl Beukes,(James) bears an uncanny resemblence to Justin Timberlake, but looks aside, his role starts off a little crazy and develops into a metaphor of the struggles and issues we all at some point face, as South Africans.
My higlights of the movie, was the amazing videography, the use of locations in and surrounding JOZI...capturing the beauty of our ethinicity and the street vendors we take for granted. I loved the scene where James is being chased by an inefficient police cop in a wheat/maize field outside Jo'burg. I loved the incredible urban landscape, when James and one of the female characters are standing on the fire escape stairs on a roof top at sunset overlooking the street vendors who make a living from selling feather dusters. It's a pivotal moment as James surrenders to his place and identity as a "Joburger."
To draw on the wit of the movie, James writes for a comedy show, "Jozi Jives" which is about 4 people of various ethnic backgrounds living together in Jozi. Ironically these characters do not reflect anything that is synonymous with the real lives and struggles of a Jozi resident. So as James rediscovers Jozi, the characters in his sitcom also reflect this change.
Quirky moment: There was a funny song that played, "Kiss me on the cheek," which leaves you smiling moments after...
The movie starts off slow and somewhat dry at first, but unfolds into a witty, captivating and Proudly South African production.
Story line:
James is a successful comedy writer. There is only one small problem, he lives in Johannesburg and completely lost his humour. Crime, politics, pessimism and feather duster salesmen have invaded every cell of his body causing him to lose the very spark of humour which enables him to earn his living.
He has other problems too, his girlfriend has left him for the most boring man in the world, his entire family has emigrated, he has thrown his producer's laptop out of the window and developed a serious drug problem.
In the maddest of madcap journey, ( think Trainspotting ) James must travel through the highways and byways of South Africa from Daspoort Rehab back to Johannesburg to try and find his elusive sense of humour as well his ability to love and laugh again.
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