OVP: Yesterday (2004)

Film: Yesterday (2004)
Stars: Leleti Khumalo, Kenneth Khambula, Harriet Lenabe, Lihle Mvelase, Camilla Walker
Director: Darrell Roodt
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Foreign Language Film-South Africa)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

In 2004, Yesterday made history in a couple of ways.  First of all, it was the first commercial film ever released that is almost completely in Zulu (in watching it, I noticed at least a couple of lines from a guard that were in English).  It also ended a long drought for South Africa, who had submitted its first foreign language film in 1989 for the Oscars but had never been cited for the trophy until Yesterday.  The film, about a woman who discovers her cheating husband has given her AIDS, is the sort of deeply heavy-handed picture that is the bread-and-butter of the foreign language film category, almost always content to be as depressing as possible, particularly compared to the airier Best Picture or Best Animated Feature categories, but it also finds a sense of humanity & life that I wasn't expecting, particularly from the lead of actress Leleti Khumalo in the title role.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film, as I mentioned is about a woman named Yesterday (Khumalo).  We are trained as an audience to know that her persistent cough and passing out are not meant to be a cold (no one ever coughs in a film unless they are going to be on death's door at some point), and we find out about a third of the way through the picture that Yesterday has been diagnosed with AIDS.  As we are in Africa, and this is 15 years ago, this feels like a death sentence in the way it wouldn't be in the United States in 2019, and indeed this is how Yesterday takes it.  She realizes that she must have gotten it from her husband (Khambula) since she hasn't had sex with any other man, and so there's a conundrum-how does she tell him this, and who will take care of their young daughter Beauty (Mvelase) when they have both died from the disease.  The movie unfolds with a relatively small cast as Yesterday moves to try to set up her daughter for a success & long life she was never afforded, and give her family some sense of dignity in the face of tragic circumstance.

The film is hard-to-watch, as you can imagine.  Seeing two actors try to find some light in the wake of a terminal illness is usually powerful and affecting, but it doesn't always guarantee great cinema; grading films like Yesterday frequently I find most difficult because the film itself may be dealing with important issues (and in 2004, in particular, might have been a message that would have been worth trumpeting to spread HIV awareness in South Africa in a way that an Oscar nomination could be worthwhile regardless of the film's quality), but there are moments in the film where seriousness feels like it's coming to replace plot, and that there isn't enough story growth for most of the side characters, who all remain 2-dimensional figures rather than people we should be latching onto with something other than sympathy.

However, Yesterday herself is a fully-fleshed person, someone whose hopes-and-dreams infiltrate her circumstances, and Khumalo brings a light to her that would otherwise make this film feel important-but-disposable.  I loved the ways that she hides certain things, while being a relatively open person, or the little moments where she catches herself talking about a future that she won't enjoy, allowing herself hope when everyone else sees death.  The film's ambiguous ending, where we see her bidding her daughter off to school, us wondering what will remain for the chapters of her life (however short it might be) works well, and almost makes up for the relatively thin plot & development outside of her character.