CITY OF VIOLENCE. Directed by Jérôme Salle, with Forest Whitaker, Orlando Bloom, Conrad Kemp, Inge Beckmann, Tinarie van Wyk-Loots, Regardt van den Bergh and Iman Isaacs.
REVIEW: Steyn du Toit
A YOUNG Zulu boy starts running through a township during the opening moments of Jérôme Salle’s City of Violence.
Moments earlier he witnessed his pro-ANC father being necklaced by a group of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters. It’s 1978. South Africa lies in turmoil. Sirens are blaring in the distance. Police dogs are snapping at his heels. Pushing himself even harder, he hopes not only to be able to outrun those chasing him, but also the demons that will haunt him into adulthood.
Adapted from Caryl Férey’s Zulu, which won the French Grand Prix prize for best crime novel in 2008, we then meet up with the boy nearly 40 years later. Running on a treadmill in a room overlooking Cape Town, homicide detective Ali Sokhela (Forest Whitaker) has since dedicated his life to fighting crime.
Teaming up with a footloose, freewheeling deputy Brian Epkeen (Orlando Bloom), his next assignment involves the investigation of the brutal murder of a well-known rugby player’s daughter.
Found near Muizenberg beach, it is discovered the victim had been under the influence of a new drug when she was killed.
While Ali and Brian might appear very different from the outside, these men are effectively two sides of the same coin. Together they represent those individuals who, despite the trauma of our past, persist in trying to do the right thing and to move forward as a nation.
Simultaneously, they also repre-sent that which still tortures us – our need for vengeance.
But is revenge worth it in the long run, the film asks, or is it ultimately a futile exercise that can never properly heal our emotional scars?
Add to these contemporary considerations a large South African supporting cast, spectacular scenes of Cape Town’s topography, ferocious action sequences and a high level of technical proficiency overall, and by all accounts this France-South Africa production should be a celebrated hit in the tradition of films such as Tsotsi or City of God. But it is not, and ultimately becomes a movie that, despite being visually and stylistically impressive buckles under the weight of its own sensationalism and superficialities.
Rarely showing Ali and Brian together, City of Violence alternates between them while they investigate, shoot, and interrogate their way in second-rate Zulu, Afrikaans and South African English accents through Cape Town’s underbelly.
If seeing hands chopped off with pangas, men pinned against walls with knives struck through their earlobes and torture scenes involving victims hanging from ceilings isn’t your cup of tea, then it is advisable that you cover your eyes during these graphic intervals.
Eventually uncovering a diabolical plan to exterminate the entire country’s black population through a chemically engineered street drug (yes, really), the script also tries to articulate Whitaker and Bloom’s characters’ motivations.
Through the film’s depiction of the characters interaction with family members, colleagues and underground associates, we are reminded again of the necessity of forgiveness as medicine for healing.
Among the familiar local faces to look out for over the course of the film are Conrad Kemp as Dan Fletcher, a fellow detective helping Ali and Brian chase criminals; Tinarie van Wyk-Loots as Claire Fletcher, Dan’s wife left a widow after a violent and tragic scene; Regardt van den Bergh as a former apartheid cop/the movie’s bad guy, De Beer; Iman Isaacs as Janet, a nerdy police officer with a gift for research; as well as Inge Beckmann as Ruby; Brian’s ex-wife whom he frequently goes to visit, and argues with, in between dodging bullets and single-handedly pursuing criminals.
Elsewhere, Tanya van Graan, Brendon Daniels, Oscar Peterson, Chuma Sopotela, Turner Adams and Christian Bennett also pop up as part of the scenery.
Packed with lots of bells, whistles and gunshots, City of Violence is best recommended for those looking to be entertained by a fast-paced cop thriller with lots of action, car chases and strong visuals.