It has been playing the international film festival circuit since September 2004 with a mixed reception — not great, but fun.
Max and Mona is another in a long line of stories about rural youth, with unusual gifts, heading to the metropolis to make their fortune. Max Bua (Mpho Lovinga), who bears his lack of urban sophistication on his face, has won admission to Wits to study medicine. He is from a small village in the rolling hills of Bafoken outside Swartruggens in the North West Province. He has inherited from his grandfather the ability to cry and his sincerity, after a blessing has been invoked from the ancestors, causes others to cry too at funerals. His people love him and have raised the R10,000 for his entry fee at Wits.
The flick begins with a shot of Max in a coffin. Then it goes on to an old man (Billy Moshigo) peeing against a tree and being killed by a bolt of lightening. Max mourns at his funeral. Chapter style headings, more like engravings on a tombstone, announce each funeral, and there are many. We then shift to Max’s exodus from his village that is so remote that a tractor takes him on the first leg. His father is the local traditional doctor. Just before he leaves an aunt asks him to take a goat to a wedding in Johannesburg, and he sets off with, unknown to him, the village’s sacred goat — which must not be killed. On a crowded mini-bus the goat is sitting in Max’s lap and sucking at a neighbour, and is thus christened “Mona” (or “suck” in Setswana).
Once in Jozi, Max finds himself saddled with Mona, though he does meet Nozipho (Thumi Melamu), they share a mutual attraction. Having failed to register at Wits, and with no place to sleep, he sets out with Mona to find his Uncle Norman a.k.a “Bra Nox” (Jerry Mofokeng). Uncle runs a small shebeen and is under the control of a local drug lord “Razor” (Percy Matsemela), whom he owes 10,000 bucks. Rather than see his uncle lose an ear, Max forks out his fee money. Mona quickly dumps them in deeper debt as she consumes 25,000 worth of Razor’s dagga stored with Norman. The only way out now is for Max to ply his gift as “King of Tears”. Uncle strikes a bargain with a local funeral home, where the owner’s son is the embalmer and a transvestite who takes a shine to Max. Max cries, the tears flow, and it is catching, until Razor’s brother dies, and then …
It is all slick, more like a first take that should have toured the provinces and then been re-made. The actors have fun, but often it is pure ham (or should I say “goat”), as there are too many cardboard characters — but then the audience is always the sucker. Still, we get so few films here from outside the American nexus — and even fewer where Setswana is spoken — it is worth seeing just to make your own judgment. It is a comedy and you will laugh. Keep looking for the next movie from Dv8 — it is bound to be better.
Max and Mona is one hour and 40 minutes long. It is directed by Teddy Mattera who also wrote the script with Greg Latter. Mattera studied in London and Amsterdam and worked on a number of shorts including Norman Comes to Jozi (2002). The cinematographer is Ivan Leathers and the music is by Philip Miller, with a number of hit songs by Brenda Fassie. The movie was filmed on location and in a studio in Våst (Sweden). The European Community helped to fund it.
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Ray (2004) is at the New Capitol Cinemas, Game City. See the review “Music is his Mistress” iArts and Culture on Friday 30 November 2004. Ray is acted by Jamie Foxx and he is terrific — two weeks ago he was rewarded with an Oscar as best actor in the Academy Awards. Ray is two hours and 32 minutes long. It is rated PG-13 because of drug use, language and innuendos. It is directed by Taylor Hackford to a script by James L. White, from a story by Mr Hackford and Mr White. The cinematographer is Pawel Edelman; Paul Hirsch is the editor; the music is by Ray Charles; scored by Craig Armstrong. Before he died Ray Charles taught Jamie Foxx how to play like him.
