Customer Reviews

Yesterday

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in South Africa, "Yesterday" chronicles the harshness of life in a small Zulu village, and the plight of a woman named Yesterday, whose husband works in the Johannesburg mines, and who in his occasional visits home, has infected her with the AIDS virus. When she tells him, his reaction is denial and to brutally beat her, but later comes home to die, and to be nursed by her. Yesterday vows to stay alive until her little daughter is of school age, and in the care of the village schoolteacher. The hardships suffered are unrelenting, making this film not an easy one to watch.

Leleti Khumalo is wonderful as Yesterday, and others in the cast include Kenneth Khambula as the husband, Harriet Lenabe as Yesterday's only friend, the teacher, and Camilla Walker as the caring doctor. The cinematography by Michael Brierling of the arid, desolate landscape has a strange beauty despite the hardness of the life of its people, and there is a mellow loveliness to the Mandale Kunene soundtrack. Written and directed by Darrell Roodt, "Yesterday" was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, and it is a story of courage and love, though an exceedingly sorrowful one. Total running time is 90 minutes.

"Yesterday" opens with a long slow camera pan over South African Desert. When it seemed too long I looked at the timer on the DVD player and 3 1/2 minutes had passed - just a camera passing across the desert. Then the camera picks up two lone figures walking up the road, a young black mother and her child. They pass two women who ask them how far it is to their village. "We've been walking over two hours", the young woman says. She clearly has far to walk still.

The woman finally arrives at her destination - to get in line to see a Doctor who comes to the neighboring village once a week. Although she has walked for hours, and has the return walk ahead of her, she is told that she is too late. A man comes up to interrupt the Doctor's line - about 20 patients ahead of her. Then I got it. The long opening camera shot was designed to give me, the comfortable viewer, some sense of the uncomfortable nature of life in these African villages. Although the woman had walked through the desert for hours she was too late - and the Doctor wouldn't be returning for a week. I felt ashamed at being annoyed by the opening 3 1/2 minute shot of the desert. Director Darrell Roodt had me. The director of the acclaimed "Cry, the Beloved Country" returns with another story that must be told about his native South Africa.

The young mother was "Yesterday", played by Leleti Khumalo of "Hotel Rwanda", and she was leading her daughter "Beauty", played by Lihle Mvelase. Yesterday is a Zulu, and Roodt makes the film ring true by having the entire film in Zulu, so a warning to those who hate to read subtitles or don't speak Zulu.

It dawns on us that Yesterday has some awful disease - from her coughing at night I at first thought she might have T.B. but we learn that the news is perhaps even worse. Her husband (in a brief but effective performance by Kenneth Khambula), on one of his rare trips home from the Johannesburg mines, has infected her with H.I.V.

The film never gets preachy. There are scenes of heart-warming compassion - such as the teacher in her village (played well by Harriet Lenabe) probably only slightly better off financially than impoverished Yesterday, who offers to watch Beauty so that Yesterday can get to the weekly Doctor visit in time in the village on the other side of that long walk we see in the opening scene, then secretly hires a taxi to carry Yesterday even more quickly. There are also scenes full of painful anguish - with perhaps none worse than the scene where Yesterday tracks down her husband at the mine to give him the news.

We don't get to see pharmaceutical companies and governments and whatever decisions go into making treatment for AIDS available or, perhaps more importantly, affordable. We get to see a compassionate Doctor (played by Camilla Walker), strapped for resources, who tries to help hundreds of patients. We get to see the villagers who live around Yesterday's hut, and how their growing fear and resentment make Yesterday and her husband outcasts when it becomes clear that they had AIDS.

Yesterday's only hope is that she will live long enough to see Beauty begin school. My hope is that growing awareness will make fewer Yesterdays.

YESTERDAY is a film that settles into your heart to remind us how treasureable life is. Few films made with such utter simplicity of focus have addressed a world crisis issue in the form of one couple than this and for that reason alone this film should be widely seen. But there are many other reasons to pay attention to this South African movie.

Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo) is an eloquently beautiful Zulu woman who discovers she has been infected with HIV from her coalminer husband (Kenneth Khambula). She confronts him with that fact and his response is embarrassed rage and physical abuse. Yesterday is concerned that her daughter live to attend school and have a chance at a better life. She is befriended by the school teacher (Harriet Lenabe) and by the doctor in whom she confides (Camilla Walker). Growing ill from AIDS, Yesterday's husband returns home and seeks Yesterday's succor and forgiveness on his deathbed. The power of Yesterday's spirit only grows stronger with every sad reality of her life: she is determined to stay alive until her daughter is safely in school and the future that transition promises.

Each of these actors provide astonishing performances, so delicately nuanced that they are able to pry open the heart. The majestically beautiful scenery of South Africa, with its mist-clothed mountains and far reaching stretches of horizons, plays an important role in this story: nature remains the guardian of mortals. Director and writer Darrell Roodt has a little masterpiece of a film here and one that deserves all of our attention. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

I found this movie by accident on my local PBS station last night. Unfortunately, I happened upon the movie when it was already half over. But I have to tell you that the half I saw really affected me.

The subtle and graceful acting, the African landscape, the beautiful language, the truly wonderful soundtrack, and the dignified, but sad story - a woman's struggle to care for her daughter and home (and later, her dying husband) and survive her own battle with AIDS long enough to see that her daughter starts school and finds a loving home - made this little gem well worth my time. It's easy to see why YESTERDAY was nominated for an Academy Award. I definitely want to watch it again.

What a lovely, haunting film YESTERDAY is. I give it 5 stars, and heartily recommend that you view the movie for yourself. I promise you will be affected by it, as I was.

This is one of the most moving, beautiful films I have ever seen. The acting is amazing-- all of the characters feel completely real to the viewer.

Although Yesterday's story is a tragedy, the film isn't oppressive or depressing to watch-- instead, it was mesmerizing and beautiful. Even though her situation illuminates the AIDS crisis in Africa, the film is really about Yesterday's life as an individual. She is a woman who faces many challenges (poverty, illiteracy, isolation, and life-threatening illness) but responds to her situation with creativity, determination, and grace. It is hard to imagine a person who would fail to be moved by her story.

The film also provides a fascinating glimpse into the everyday lives of people in a small village in rural South Africa. Finally, "Yesterday" is worth seeing as an example of the writing and filmmaking crafts, too-- unique use of language, carefully chosen visual images, and story pacing illuminate Yesterday's life.

A wonderful, truly special film which will move, enlighten, and impact those who see it.

I was in Kenya when I saw this movie by accident on TV. After a few minutes I could not let my eyes away from the TV set. The story is simple, the narration is slow and yet you are glued to the screen. The love of this mother for her daugher jumps to your face with very few words and a tough fight against day-to-day adversity, against the disease and against the hostile neighbors.
I left this movie as emotionnaly wrenched as I was after I read "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute.

Brace yourself and dive into this movie. You'll be changed for ever.

About 40% of all people infected with HIV live in a handful of southern and eastern countries in Africa. This first Zulu film with an international release (and original music) puts a human face on this nightmare. It also shines a light on the complex web of forces that conspire against Africans with HIV/AIDS, especially women. There is only one man in this film, John, and he's absent. John works in a mine in Johannesburg, passed the AIDS virus to his wife, Yesterday, and beats her when she tells him the bad news about her "falling down sickness." Yesterday was so named by her father who said that "things were better yesterday than today." And so they were. Yesterday struggles to raise her daughter, Beauty, but the forces against her are many: economic exploitation, superstitions in her remote village, cultural myths, gender discrimination, environmental degradation, a paucity of medical care that's a two-hour walk, etc. But like so many brave women, Yesterday vows, "Until my child goes to school, I'll not die of this disease." Yesterday has earned several nominations and awards at international film festivals, and was the nominee for best foreign language film by the South African Academy Award. In Zulu with English subtitles.

I bought "Yesterday" with no misgivings. I understood that it was an Oscar-nominated film in the category of Best Foreign Language movie. For me, that category holds lots of promise for a movie; one that is cinematically sound but little known in the US due to the language barrier. "Yesterday" lived up to those anticipations. It is a story of a woman who finds that she is infected with AIDS. It gives a look at the social stigma as it was felt by her in her native South Africa. It also gives a look at a person whose determination helps her to remain focussed while much around her crumbles. In that sense it is a moving tale of courage mixed with a look at life in a rural South African village and the challenges that adds to Yesterday's dilemna.

The leading actress, Leleti Khumalo, has an infectuous smile that endears us to her from the start. The entire cast was new to me and I confess that I was aprehensive when I saw that the movie was produced by HBO Films. I was afraid to find a "made for (cable) TV" look about it. I'm glad to say that my fears were relieved (However, I fully expected the film to close with an on-screen lecture about the ravaging effects of the spread of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa...it didn't). If the movie has any shortcomings then, for me, they lie in its' failure to more fully develop the community that Yesterday lives in. While much was covered in that area, much was left to our imagination.

I've seen my share of powerful and moving films, but this is certainly one of the very best. A woman in Africa who's infected with HIV has to find the strength to wake up every single day and take care of her daughter. The emotions this film has is on a whole other level. First of all, it's true you have to read the English text on the bottom of the screen for the entire length of the movie, and honestly, I think this may be the first time I've actually done that (usually when the characters in a film aren't speaking in English, I turn it over). I simply COULD NOT turn away from the amazing twists and turns of this storyline, and watching the problems this poor woman had to go through. I liked how she kept repeating "I'm not angry about anything" throughout the film, while other people in the village were basically questioning "How can that be possible".

She was certainly a courageous woman- she had to work hard for her daughter and her husband who was working far away from where they live because the family was so poor, along with the entire village. There was some very interesting moments when the woman went to find her husband, and talk to him about the HIV virus. Some rather shocking things, to be honest.

What the woman does at the end of the film for her husband is amazing, and I won't spoil it for anyone. It's amazing that she'd be willing to do that after what has happened, but her belief in supporting her husband and daughter was very powerful and important to her on a personal level. And the whole time she remained grateful for so many things, even during all the bad times, and the times where she couldn't afford things, and during all the times she had to wait for the doctor only for the doctor to be busy and not want to see her until the next week.

A must watch.

This movie came on HBO Demand and I loved it. I can't wait for this to be added to my collection of DVD's. It's gripping and compelling and it really makes you very angry at how bad it is in Africa with the AIDS epidemic. It seems to be getting worse and worse with no end results. I thought the acting was terrific and it definitely deserves an oscar. Not a nomination the actual oscar itself. If you haven't seen this movie, please do so it's very good.