Check Out the Trailer

This is not the first AIDS message film to come out of Africa and it probably won’t be that last. It touches on many of the issues that the Oscar nominated African film YESTERDAY tackled. But what makes this film different is its perspective. The innocent children of the pandemic are at the center. It’s tale of struggle and sacrifice works on the audience slowly reaching a power crescendo.

In the first scene, tweenaged Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka) is buying a coffin for her dead infant sister. Her mother Lillian (Lerato Mvelase) is too grief stricken to leave the house. Her stepfather Jonah (Aubrey Poolo) is passed out drunk at a bar with another woman. He has taken all the family’s money so Chandra has to go recover it in order to pay for the funeral. Lillian’s friend Mrs. Tafa (Harriet Lenabe, HOTEL RWANDA) reminds Chanda that the baby died of influenza so no one will talk. No one shall dare say what they think it really was.

Read the rest of this entry »

Buy It Now!

Read my review of LIFE, ABOVE ALL

This 1080p MPEG-4 AVC transfer of Oliver Schmitz’s South African film is rich with detail. The color palette glows with earthly tones from the golden brown dirt streets to clay buildings of the towns. Black levels are solid. African skin tones are so often either too shadowed or blown out, but here they come through beautifully natural. The clarity of the image allows for details to pop whether it be the contours of the actors’ faces or the fabrics of the clothing. The picture is so clear that one gets the sense of added depth in the frame. As for digital anomalies, they are nonexistent.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack matches the picture in quality. Subtlety ambiance marks the entire film. Whether it’s simple touches like the buzzing of a fluorescent light or fuller crowd scenes, the mix doesn’t slip. Directionality is spot on trucks or even people move across the soundscape. The balance between dialogue, sound effects and score is also wonderfully handled. The LFE track isn’t bombastic, but it isn’t forgotten either.

Read the rest of this entry »