Review by Bud Moore
Stars Khomotso Manyaka, Harriet Lenabe, Keaobaka Makanyane, Lerato Mvelase, Tinah Mnumzana, Aubrey Poolo, Mapaseka Mathebe, Thato Kgaladi, Rami Chuene
Written by Dennis Foon
Certification UK 12A | US PG-13
Runtime 100 minutes
Directed by Oliver Schmitz
Life, Above All is the story of 13-year-old Chanda, who has a lot of problems. Or, to be more precise, she has to deal with a lot of other people's problems. A small selection of these problems? Arranging the funeral for her two-yearold sister, looking after her mother after she goes into an almost catatonic state of grief, getting back the money her stepfather steals that she was going to use to for the funeral. As well as dealing with the consequences of her best friend Ester's decision to become a prostitute at the local truck stop, taking her in after she is brutally raped cut up and very possibly infected with AIDS.
All of this might be a little bit much to take if it were not for Manyaka's performance as Chanda. In her first acting role she is mesmerising, self assured but also vulnerable. Almost like an old Hollywood movie star she is that thing that we want to see on the screen. We're for her, we know she must succeed against all the odds that are put against her because without that there is no hope at all. In a way she embodys Africa but also any developing country as well. Her innate ability to take a problem on, tackle it, and then move on to next one whilst also retaining a little bit of her innocence is actually genuinely inspirational. There is a scene in a quack doctors office where she quickly realises that the AIDS cure they've gone there to buy for her mother is just a palliative and is going to do nothing for the onset of the disease, even though it is going to help the symptoms, she very quickly negotiates the price down and makes it quite clear that she's got her eye on him.
With the relentlessly dark subject matter, Chandra also has to deal with some witchcraft problems, bringing up her younger brother and sister, dealing with her step fathers ostracism from the locally community because of his AIDS infection as well working out a way for her mother to die with dignity. Her sister also gets trapped down a well. It's not really surprising that she misses the occasional day of school.
There are certain parallels with Lillya 4 Ever by Lukas Moodysson as well as the films of Takashi Miike. With Lillya unlike Chandra you are relieved when she dies because her life has been so brutal and relentlessly horrible. We know that can't happen to Chandra, we're desperate for her to get on with her life and perhaps for a short moment of time actually do something for herself or at least find a way to fulfil her enormous potential. There are certain points in Miike films where you put your hand over your face, or a little voice in you head says 'he's not going there with this is he?' and then another little voice says 'oh my god he is going there with this' In a Miike those moments would be to do with extremely weird violence or strange sexual congress. In Life, Above All those moments are extremely horrible but very real, very mundane, everyday incidents that happen to people every day, in places that are very far from your thoughts.
If you're planning to do something this weekend, get a new tattoo, get ridiculously drunk with friends, spending all the money you haven't got shopping in department stores for thing you don't need, or going to see some terrible CGI blockbuster at your local multiplex, don't. Go and see this instead, it's brilliant acted, and is a proper story about what is happening in the world today. Important things that we should all be aware of, care about and try and change.
• Official Site
• Life, Above All at IMDb
• Read our interview with Life, Above All director Oliver Schmitz