Son of Man (2005) 87 minutes.
Director: Mark Dornford-May
Noluthando Boqwana, Andile Kosi , Pauline Malefane , Andries Mbali , Mvuyisi Mjali , Gwebile Jim Ngxabaze, Zorro Sidloyi
This movie closely follows the Gospel story with a focus on Mary and Jesus set in a startlingly contemporary African setting. It contrasts the essential message of the Gospels with the stark realities of the post-colonial African world. The action is presented against the background of a fictional town named Judea which could be any country in Africa. The African Jesus is presented as a black man who sacrifices himself in the battle for peace in a world of military dictatorships, political unrest and violence. His mother, fleeing political suppression under a dictator, hallucinates that she is going to have a baby boy, announced by a mysterious angelic person. The child is born during an exile when her husband is taken away by the military and she is left with the child. Shepherds and wise men visit the baby too. His enemies set about to hunt him down in a sequence that recalls the slaughter of the innocents. As Jesus grows into a young man, he leaves his mother behind and begins a ministry much like the Jesus of the Gospels. He is a strong advocate against exploitation and violence. He builds a community of followers around him whose names are those of the disciples mentioned in the Gospels. One of them is a greedy Judas who betrays him for money. He is arrested taken for trial and killed. Unlike the Gospel narrative he is made to disappear like in the case of dictatorial regimes that make their opponents disappear. When Mary gets the news of her son’s disappearance, she goes searching for his body, recovers it and sets him upon a cross as a reminder of the violence and brutality of the establishment.
The inhabitants of the township are enraged by the injustice poured out upon Jesus, but are apparently still unwilling to stand up against the tyranny that oppresses them. It is only when Mary refuses to cower before gun-toting soldiers that the people follow her example as she follows that of her son. A community of peaceful protestors sing hymns around him and face up to the gun toting soldiers.
The opening sequence presents an encounter between the African Jesus being tempted by Satan and is rebuffed, but Satan declares “this is my world”. The ending sequence recalls the same when the women in the congregation resisting violence raises the question for the sake of their children: “whose world is this?”, but on a strong note of hope with Jesus surrounded by his angels.
The film is to be seen as an expression of postcolonial agency, as a call to constructive political action, as an interpretation of the Gospels, and as a reconfiguration of the Jesus film tradition. The film itself concisely asks on behalf of the children featured in it and their politically active mothers, ‘Whose world is this’?
The Pilgrim’s Progress – 82 minutes
Director- David Kirk West
Cast Jeremy Oliveira, Matthew McAuliffe,Danielle MacDowell, Mera Oliveira,Sean snyderLary Anderson, Josh Oliveira.
There have been several film adaptations of this classic Christian allegory of the 17th century, considered one of the most widely read pieces of fiction in English. Its unfailing popularity rests on its combination of adventure, journey, dream, and bringing together of key Christian doctrines into popular imagination thereby appealing to people of all ages and cultures. This adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress is rendered in the musical form with rhymed dialogue and engaging gospel music. The story is set against a rural setting and as a dream within a dream. A pastor named Christian is the chief narrator as imagined by John Bunyan the author of the literary work. Christian who reads ‘The Book’ is overwhelmed by a sense of the burden of sin and the vision of an impending destruction of the city of doom where he lives. He is mocked and rejected by his family when he exhorts them to leave with him to escape doom. He sets out alone guided by the ‘Evangelist’ who appears at crucial moments to guide him. He faces temptations on the way but resolutely journeys on to free himself from the burden of sin.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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