Cape Of Good Hope (2004/South Africa)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C+

 

 

Mark Bamford’s Cape Of Good Hope is an award-winning if somewhat predictable story of the lives of various people in post-apartheid South Africa, set at an animal rescue shelter.  Sharifa wants a child, but is having difficulty conceiving.  Kate prefers dogs to people, who she gets along with better.  Jean Claude is at an impasse in his life, not knowing if he should stay or go.   This could be melodramatic, but Bamford (who co-wrote the screenplay with Suzanne Kay) shows an edgier side to the country where racial indifference still lingers and women & children still get the worst end of things.

 

The country’s well-known legacy haunts the film in subtle, implicit ways that makes events that happen in even the more predictable parts easier to take.  The film is touted as a romantic comedy, but that will particularly set up false expectations for a U.S. audience who can only associate that term with fluff films from Hollywood that get increasingly worse.  You would never see this kind of poverty, sex and violence in such a film with stars like Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock.  No wonder some people may have taken even a perverse pleasure in this film.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is soft and pasty throughout, but the scenery is worth catching since we see so few productions from this part of the world.  The Dolby Digital 5.0 mix is not bad for a low-budget production, but has fidelity limits and surrounds are only so major.  Extras include an on-camera interview with director Bamford and actor Eriq Ebouaney, as well as the original trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo