FOOLS (1997, South Africa, 90 min.) directed by Ramadan Suleman; screenplay by Bhekizizwe Peterson and Ramadan Suleman from the story by Njabulo S. Ndebele; cinematography by Jacques Bouquin; sound by Philippe Sénéchal; music by Ray Phiri; edited by Christiane Lack; with Patrick Shai (Zamani), Dambisa Kente (Nosipho), Hlomla Dandala (Zani), Jeremiah Ndlovu (Forgive Me), Corney Mabaso (Meneer), Ken Gampu (The Elder), Vusi Kunene (Mazambane). In English, and Zulu and Afrikaans with English subtitles.

"Fools is my first feature film, but also the first directed by a South African Black filmmaker. Fools will provoke a debate in the heart of the Black South African community on the state of consciousness, education, the brutal imposition of the Afrikaaner culture, sexual violence, and the place of women in the everyday life of the townships. These issues are particularly pertinent at this moment, as the country is undergoing profound democratic transformations.

. "Fools will not be a film about the eternal conflict between the "diabolical" White and the "magnificent" Black, but simply a film about the Black South African people of just four years ago." Ramadan Suleman, 1995

Charterston Township, 1990

Professor Zamani is respected in the township. Yes, he raped one of his young students, but the community has closed its eyes. Many years ago, Zamani rebelled against the politics of Apartheid, but that's now ancient history. Today, he teaches his country's history in Afrikaans, and prepares, albeit reluctantly, the celebration of the national holiday, anniversary of the massacre of the Zulu nation by the Boers.

When Zani, the brother of the young violated girl returns from Swaziland, where he has had the chance to finish his studies, he is firmly resolved to change everything. Early in the morning, in the waiting room at the Johannesburg train station, he happens upon Zamani, who is returning from a night of debauchery. Together, they will rediscover the harsh reality of the township. There, Zamani will regain a bit of his pride, while Zani will inevitably lose his . . .

Beneath the gaze of the women, who have never lost their dignity.

Fools paints a portrait of a South Africa in transition that is free of concession: no one there is completely innocent. Even the victims seem guilty. Was it necessary to have so unconventional a panorama?

Ten years ago, the films devoted to South Africa were all American or European. More recently, liberal White South Africans have taken on the subject. They too have succeeded in their efforts, certainly economically! They presented themselves as the spokespersons for the Blacks, but in fact they could never really get to the heart of the subject. In their films, Blacks were never able to emerge from their role as Apartheid's passive victims.

Fools casts a different eye on this reality. It tries first of all to avoid the traditional Black/White split. I wanted to consider Blacks in their entirety, as--to use the English expression--"holistic people," trapped like animals in the system of Apartheid, living their everyday lives as if behind prison bars.

Trapped psychologically and materially, even in the will to resist Apartheid.

Thus, we have the principal character of the film, Zamani, who during the Seventies had tried to struggle against Apartheid. But for him, as for all the others, time has passed, and he has lost hope, and as a result has lost his humanity. Apartheid has made of him just what it wanted: an animal who will in turn apply brutal methods against his own people.

Yet Zamani is a teacher, an educated man. Couldn't he have resisted more firmly?

Zamani became an instrument of Apartheid without even realizing it. He had previously had the courage to resist, but Apartheid made him believe that there was no possible way out. So, Zamani participated in the system and lost all sense of humanity. That's why he is so very hard with his wife, who does resist. Despite everything, the look that she gives him is nearly unbearable: whenever he arrives, she is always standing. He beats her in an effort to bring her down.

Did all resistance in South Africa go through the women?

Zamani's wife obviously resists. Unfortunately, for her, as for many women in this society, the options are not many. In this exact case, to survive in the face of her husband and all that he represents is already an act of resistance. The condemnation of the role played by Zamani will come from Ma'Butelezi, the mother of the neighborhood girl whom Zamani raped. She will say, "This man, when you see him, what do you see? You see something that has rotted. It's pointless to be aggressive against him."

For this elderly lady, men like Zamani are dead to humanity. They are dangerous, but they no longer really exist. In a phrase, in a look, all is said.

The second male character, Zani, a student who returns from Swaziland, seems equally cut off from the reality of his people. His militancy is generous in spirit, but ineffective.

Since the democratic elections of 1994, there is an effort to present us as a "Rainbow Nation." For me, it is fundamental that we not forget the past; the daily life in today's South Africa is not really represented by such an image. Or rather, I would dare say that a rainbow is located thousands of kilometers in the sky, and its colors are separated by great distances.

In Fools I intended to say to the politicians, "Let's not invent images or formulas for the people; let's not slip false words into the language; let's allow daily life to create its own vocabulary." The character of Zani for me is comparable to Che Guevara, thirty years after his death. Guevara was in Zaire or in Bolivia without knowing the needs of those people, without consulting them. Zani is like him. One must not commit the same errors.

Fools attempts to enter into our memory. It is important to interrogate the past and to reflect on ourselves. The impact of Apartheid is nowhere near disappearing. It is crucial that politicians bear in mind the profound, lasting implications of this system.

Fools is a mirror that I extend to them. For today and for tomorrow.

So that in five or ten years the question can be asked: "Did something change at the end of three years of democracy?" In South Africa, people are conscious and responsible; they are not asking for everything. Just a drop of change!

How did the filming go? The crew included White and Black South African, Zimbabwean, Mozambican, and French technicians.

First of all, I would like to salute the deep engagement of the French technicians, and of my coproducers from Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Unfortunately, the White

South African technicians are still far from having internalized the idea of the "Rainbow Nation." Fools was in their eyes no more than one film among the thirty produced in a year in my country. They lacked passion--and, more particularly, passion for cinema. For them, Fools did not represent the beginning of a new era, the first feature film by a Black South African. Fools was only a means to earn some money and to be able to pay their bills at the end of the month. Do not believe that I am caricaturing their attitude. More than half of them left in the middle of filming in order to work on the filming of yet another version of Tarzan , where they could earn a fatter paycheck!

Are all South Africans implicated by Fools?

Fools addresses itself to both Blacks and Whites. Blacks, so that they can see themselves as a community with extreme internal contradictions; Whites, so that they can no longer pretend that they did not know the extent to which Apartheid broke down everything. I focused on Blacks because until now this system has prevented me from really knowing Whites. In ten years, perhaps, I will be able to speak equally of them in full knowledge of the facts.

Fools speaks of a people, the South African people, of its soul, its contradictions, its frustrated desires as well as its psychology. Of human beings, ordinary beings confronting one of the most soul-crushing machines to ever exist: Apartheid.

Fools is the first feature film directed by a young Black South African.

Several months ago, South Africa was liberated from the terrible system of Apartheid. The wounds are deep and will scar the country for a long time. It is urgent that we witness this reality, both for the different communities of South Africa and for the rest of the world.

Ramadan Suleman's project brings together two essential qualities. It is ambitious as a work of cinematic art, but it is also an "engaged" film, because it attacks the reality of its country without compromise and far from clichés. A reality that probably only a filmmaker who has emerged from the Black community is in a position to confront.

In putting together the crew and funding of the film, everything was done to promote the emergence of an autonomous South African film industry. It is within this sprit that we have conceived the cooperation between the producers, the artistic personnel, and the technicians.

We have developed various contacts in order to bring together different African producers around a new South African company, Natives At Large. The cooperation between South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, is important on several levels.

At this moment where important changes are taking place in South Africa, and to cope with the omnipresence of the U.S. and England, it is indispensable that we tighten the connections between these three countries.

In addition, in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, there are established professionals who do not exist today in South Africa. Zimbabwe in particular has developed a national film production, welcomed international productions, developed a technical infrastructure in the form of laboratories, and has thus forged a useful experience for the entire region.

The cooperation between Joel Phiri (Frameworks Company from Zimbabwe), Pedro Pimenta (Ebano Company from Mozambique), Ramadan Suleman and Bhekizizwe Peterson (Natives at Large from South Africa), should give birth to an enduring coproduction network.

[France's JBA Production, which was also part of the co-production team, has co-produced a number of high-quality films from the Third World, including Bab-El-Oued City, which will be shown in this year's Cascade Festival.]

Ramadan Suleman was born near Durban, South Africa, in 1955. On his mother's side, he is a descendent of the Makuas, a group of Muslim East African slaves who were shipwrecked off the coast of South Africa in 1855. His father came to South Africa from Mozambique as a clandestine worker, where he met Ramadan's mother and converted to Islam in order to marry her. In the strange workings of racial classification that was the norm under apartheid, Ramadan and his family were all stamped with different racial categories. His father was for some reason labeled "Mixed Race," his mother was declared "Zanzibari," his eldest brother "Kaffir East African," two other brothers "Swahili," the fourth "Cape Malay," and he himself "Other Indian."

In 1981 Suleman received his degree from the Centre for Research and Training in African Theatre and immersed himself in the world of South African theater. During the early Eighties he worked in the alternative theater movement, and was one of the founders of Johannesburg's Dhlomo Theatre, the first "Black" theater in South Africa. There, he worked closely with Bhekisizwe Peterson, who would later co-write the screenplay for Fools. After the theater was closed in 1984 Suleman left the country to study directing in Paris, where he still lives.

While studying in Paris, he made a number of student films and documentaries, and worked as an intern on two films that we've shown in the Festival - Med Hondo's Sarraounia (1986) and Souleymane Cissé's Yeelen (1987). He was in London from 1987 to 1990 to study film direction and screenwriting at the London International Film School. His short film, The Devil's Children (1989) won a number of awards, including one at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1990.

While working on the script for Fools in 1991-92, Suleman was Technical Director of the Théâtre de la Main D'Or in Paris. He then did further work with Med Hondo and Cissé and began putting together the production of Fools. The film was shot in 1996, with post-production work in 1996 and 1997, when the film was released.

In making his first feature film, Suleman was able to call upon the talents of a number of veteran South African stage, screen, and television actors, including Ken Gampu, Vusi Kunene, Dambisa Kente and Patrick Shai, all of whom had appeared in Western productions filmed in South Africa (such as the recent version of Cry, the Beloved Country).

Fools has appeared and won awards at a number of film festivals around the world. It is our great privilege to bring it to Portland for the Tenth Festival.

Notes compiled from information provided by JBA Production, and translated from the French, by Michael Dembrow.

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