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BETWEEN FRIENDS. Directed by Zuko Nodada, with Siyabonga Radebe, Thapelo Mokoena, Mandisa Nduna, Dumisani Mbebe, Lihle Dhlomo, Amanda du Pont and Morné du Toit.
REVIEW: Steyn du Toit
OLD scabs are picked open and former flames are reignited in Zuko Nodada’s Between Friends. Written by Khobi Ledwaba, this local reunion movie is set in KwaZulu-Natal and features a 20-something cast made up of established and up-and-coming performers.
Filmed on location at the Three Cities Tala Private Game Reserve, the film kicks off seven years after a group of former university friends have graduated. Since then, the juvenile philanderer Njabulo (Siyabonga Radebe) has been appointed manager of the luxurious lodge, thanks to the fact that his father is the owner. Meanwhile, his goal-driven and level-headed younger brother Nkanyiso (Thapelo Mokoena) has become a successful young businessman, complete with a high-maintenance, Kardashian-type girlfriend Nisha (Amanda du Pont) on his arm.
The rest of the reunion is made up by the sassy, domineering Portia (Mandisa Nduna), her whipped husband Winston (Dumisani Mbebe), as well as Linda (Lihle Dhlomo), a struggling author now living in Canada.
While it is obvious that this circle of friends care for each other, the film makes it clear that something unspoken hangs between them. This is confirmed when the arrival of Linda’s Canadian fiancé Justin (Morné du Toit) brings a strained dinner conversation.
Against director of photography Trevor Calverley’s picturesque background and a soundtrack featuring Thabang Noosi, Muriel Marco and Themba Mkhize, Between Friends will eventually see all underlying matters boil to the surface before ending on a romantic, happy note.
A well-known local director with several successful TV credits under his belt including Single Galz, Loxion Lyric and Intersexions 2, Nodada was given the script’s various storylines by the Durban-based NGO Impucuzeko Skills and Training Development. As one of the film’s partners, its request was for a “glossy, upmarket film in the vein of the ‘black films’ we have seen from the US over the last couple of years”.
In an interview ahead of the film’s release, Nodada said, based on the feedback they had received so far from advanced screenings, “the images of gorgeous black women in bikinis swimming in cool blue water on a sunny day are blowing people’s minds”. He also surmised that “it seems to be an image that young black women find extremely empowering”.
But while I admire the moviefor challenging Western-established cultural perceptions of what constitutes beauty, I found myself disappointed several times by the sexist tendencies displayed through Radebe’s character.
A scene early on, for instance, sees him doing staff rounds at the hotel. After ogling and catcalling several of the lodge’s female employees, he stops at a ladder on which a woman is standing while washing windows. Openly admiring the view from below, a laughing Njabulo then slaps her buttocks before moving on.
In another scene, after his brother walks in on him in a bath tub, a woman’s head pops up from underneath the water. She’s not acknowledged, but merely left crouching there over Njabulo’s genitals.
When Nkanyiso leaves, Njabulo simply gestures for her to continue. Is this an image that young, black, or any other women, would also find empowering?
Away from the mentioned scenes, Between Friends has its share of positive and redeeming elements, but it fails to break through any kind of surface and ultimately struggles to rise above that of a longer-than-usual episode of a television soap opera. Romantic triangles, a secret love child, brotherly feuds and the sound of a whip cracking every time Winston has to carry his wife’s purse in public (yes, really), it’s all ostensibly touched on here.
A film that promotes itself as being “in the tradition of Tyler Perry films such as Why Did I Get Married and Madea’s Family Reunion”, take this as your cue when trying to work out whether or not it is for you.