YESTERDAY (2004, South Africa, 96 min.), written and directed by Darrell James Roodt; produced by Anant Singh; cinematography by Michael Brierley; music by Madala Kunene; edited by Avril Beukes; with Leleti Khumalo (Yesterday), Lihle Mvelase (Beauty, her daughter), Kenneth Kambule (John Kumalo, her husband), Harriet Lahabe (Teacher), Camilla Walker (Doctor). In isiZulu with English subtitles.

I’m not brave. It’s just the way things are.

At last year’s Festival, we showed young Norman Maake’s very powerful film Soldiers of the Rock, set in the mines of South Africa, focusing on a group of latter-day Zulu warriors trying to come to grips with the changes of post-Apartheid South Africa. Thrown together in the close quarters of their hostel, they are a Band of Brothers, leading bachelor lives, their only female company coming from the prostitutes who frequent their area.

In fact, they most likely all had families, left back in the villages of Zululand, whom they would see rarely, as little as once or twice a year. From the early days of colonialism (and this was true throughout Africa), men (and sometimes women) have left their families behind in the villages in order to survive in the new cash economy that was imposed upon them (via taxes and other encumbrances); it has always been a system that was highly destabilizing for families. But it was necessary. It meant that the men could bring back presents and money for school fees and other necessities. All too often, they are now bringing back the HIV virus.

Yesterday shows us the impact of this phenomenon on a wife, a mother, a family and a community. We are taken through a year in the life of a woman named Yesterday Kumalo (we later learn that she received this unusual name because her father yearned for earlier, better times), starting in Ehlobo (Summer). The film opens in a stunning landscape that is at once endlessly barren and indescribably beautiful. The music on the soundtrack captures that same feeling. We are in the rolling hills of Zululand, with the stark Drakensberg Mountains ever-present in the background. Against this landscape is a winding dirt road. We can gradually make out two figures, a woman and child. They are Yesterday and her daughter Beauty, in the middle of the long walk (at least two hours, probably much more) from their home in Rooihoek to the medical clinic in Kromdraai. We cannot really see their faces, but we can hear their voices, which are beautiful. Beauty’s is filled with imagination and wit; Yesterday’s with patience and love.

Yesterday is seeking treatment for a persistent cough that she has had since Christmas, a cough that we will later learn is related to her being infect by the HIV virus. However, this is not something that Yesterday herself will learn that day. When they finally arrive at the clinic, the line already is endless, and after many hours of standing, they are told that they will not be seen that day and should return in a week, and needs to come by sunup.

Back in the village, we get a clear sense of what life is like for the women and children who live there. There are no men. The women work the ground (an arduous task in that hard land), collect firewood, fetch water, wash clothes by hand. It is very, very tough. But these women are tough, and they are full of life. Helping each other pump water at the well, gossiping, making bawdy jokes, they are survivors. The social graces are important, the polite flow of greetings and acknowledgments, smiles and mutual appreciation. While this is not a stereotyped, idyllic portrait of innocent village life—their life is too hard for that—it is a kind of ideal, and one that will unfortunately be shattered by events to come.

Yesterday herself , we learn, was not a native of this village—she was brought to it by her husband, John, who is now working in a mine near Johannesburg. She is a little different from the other women, quieter, shyer and more focused on her daughter. Wracked by coughing, physically weaker than the others, she seems more inward. The love that she has for this daughter is enormous, and it is ever-present in some way on her face. Early in the film, she is graced with a friend, a new teacher who has come to the village, and this relationship will become very important for both of them.

Indeed, it is thanks to the teacher that Yesterday will finally make it to the clinic in time to see the doctor (a blonde woman doctor who speaks fluent Zulu and is both kind and cautious). But this of course leads to Yesterday learning the terrible truth, that she will soon be dead. In one of the film’s most painful moments we then see her back home, hidden by the corner of her house, staring at her daughter playing innocently and oblivious to her presence. Her face, while never exactly losing its ever-present calmness, is a battleground of emotion. She is filled with so much love for this little girl. So much sadness that she will most likely soon stop living. Yet there is a determination that rises in this beautiful, soulful face as well. She will not settle into self-pity or simply give up, never. She will live at least until she can see her daughter safely in school (something that she never experienced, to her ongoing regret). She will find her husband and tell him what has happened and urge him to seek treatment. This will lead to pain, it will lead to humiliation, to anger, and to incredible acts of kindness and determination. And for the viewer it will also lead to a deep sense of sadness and loss, but also deep admiration and profound kinship with this woman.

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Darrell James Roodt is one of South Africa’s pre-eminent directors, and perhaps the best known internationally, with more than a dozen feature films to his credit. He first teamed with Anant Singh (South Africa’s leading producer) to make A Place for Weeping (1983). Then came Sarafina! in 1991, Cry the Beloved Country in 1995, and Yesterday in 2004. The last three films all featured the remarkable Leleti Khumalo in leading roles.

Roodt spent two years researching and writing Yesterday. He wrote it in English, and then had it translated into isiZulu. Yesterday was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, the first film from South Africa to be so nominated (and, of course, the first in isiZulu). Principal funding came from HBO Films, which also funded the Raoul Peck films Lumumba and Sometimes in April.

Technically accomplished and visually striking, the film clearly reveals the director’s deep love of the land of the Zulu and of the Zulu people. But what comes through most of all is a deep love for the character played by this magnificent actress Leleti Khumalo, whose voice, bearing, and face reveal such fundamental humanity. The camera is constantly lingering on her face, illuminated it seems by the spirit that is within her. It is a powerful portrayal, and emotionally very compelling. If a woman like Yesterday can be the victim of this dreadful disease, we feel, it can happen to anyone . . . and something must be done.

--Notes by Michael Dembrow

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