Yesterday, Starring: Kenneth Khambula, Leleti Khumalo. Director: Darrell Roodt. Rating: R
Production Company: Distant Horizon, Dv8, Exciting Films, HBO Films, M-Net, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Videovision Entertainment, 2004.

Film Synopsis

In a small, remote Zulu village, an illiterate woman, Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo) ekes out a living tilling the soil. Her day-to-day existence is composed of a series of major chores, including walking to the doctor, located several kilometers away, to find out why she has been feeling so tired lately.

When Yesterday discovers she has contracted HIV from her husband, John (Kenneth Kambule), a miner working in Johannesburg, she travels to the big city to tell him. At first, John violently refuses to accept the truth, but some time later he shows up at the Zulu village, considerably weakened.

It's up to Yesterday to care for John, for their young daughter, Beauty (Lihle Mvelase), and for herself. Yesterday's health may be failing, but she still needs to keep working to support the family. She decides she will not succumb to the disease until her daughter starts going to school to get the education she never had.

Film Review

In Yesterday, Leleti Khumalo's character explains to her doctor (Camilla Walker) that her father believed that things had been better in the past; hence her name, Yesterday.

To date, nowhere has the AIDS pandemic been more felt than in Sub-Saharan Africa, home to approximately 10% of the world population and to more than 70% of the planet's 40 million AIDS cases. In the past twenty-five years, it is estimated that more than 20 million Sub-Saharan Africans have died from complications of the disease. Even today, drug cocktails that are relatively accessible in other parts of the globe are still beyond the means of the vast majority of Africans.

Writer-director Darrell Roodt's Yesterday is set in this catastrophic scenario. The film depicts the effects of AIDS in the life of a young Zulu woman who contracts HIV from her husband. Although Roodt's narrative maintains its focus on the plight of one specific woman, the (for non-Zulus) quirkily named heroine Yesterday is a representative of the millions of other women, men, and children who are now suffering or who have suffered from the effects of HIV in that part of the world.

Even if marred by a slow-moving second half and by sporadic incursions into melodrama, Yesterday has much to recommend it. For starters, Darrell Roodt (Sarafina!, Cry the Beloved Country) and cinematographer Michael Brierley make sure we are transported from our movie seats to Zululand, as Brierley's lenses beautifully capture the magnificent vistas of Yesterday's remote Zulu village. Surrounded by enormous expanses of dry grassland and hillsides, the area is reminiscent in scope to the American West's panoramic views as portrayed in the films of John Ford.

Additionally, Roodt's delicate, compassionate touch helps to humanize the film's characters, whether it is the doctor who first diagnoses Yesterday's illness or a kind-hearted teacher at the Zulu village. (They are movingly played by Camilla Walker and Harriet Lehabe, respectively). Even Yesterday's husband (Kenneth Kambule), although initially seen as the villain of the piece, is transformed into a pitiful figure, a man unable to come to terms with his deteriorating health and increasing physical weakness.

According to UNAIDS estimates, at the end of 2003 there were 5.3 million people in South Africa living with HIV. That figure represents 13.25% of the country's 40 million citizens, and places South Africa as the country with the highest number of HIV-carriers in the world.

As for Yesterday, far from being a mere victim, she is a woman who draws strength from despair. She is determined not to succumb to the disease until her young daughter, Beauty (Lihle Mvelase), starts school. As a result of Yesterday's refusal to feel sorry for herself, her suffering becomes all the more heartbreaking. Such mixture of resilience and simplicity is brought to life by Yesterday's greatest asset: Leleti Khumalo, a sensitive, intuitive actress who effortlessly carries the picture on her shoulder while delivering one of the best performances of 2004—or of any other year.

Some important reasons to educate yourself on this issue:

• According to UNAIDS, 21.5% of South Africa's adult population has been infected with HIV.
• According to Africa Action, AIDS has reduced the average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa by 15 years. Children represent one quarter of all AIDS deaths in that part of world.
• Less than 1% of Sub-Saharan Africans have access to drug cocktails that have sharply reduced AIDS deaths in other parts of the world.

Reprinted with permission from The Alternative Film Guide.

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To read another Global Envision article about HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, see Progress in Zimbabwe's HIV and AIDS Battle.

To view this and other films, see The Film Connection.

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