Five Fingers for Marseilles is a testament to how competent the SA film industry is but is it just a case of pretty pictures and nothing more? Let’s dig in...
In The Big Lebowski, the Coen Brother's classic heist/detective genre bender, the narrator goes on about “sometime there’s a man”…well, sometimes there's a film. A film that comes at the right time and becomes a symbol of those times. Ladies and Gents... Five Fingers is a film of its time.
It's directed by Michael Matthews, who's won awards for his commercials and music video work, and it's written by the co-producer Sean Drummond - and it doesn't shy away from all that plagues the new South Africa: crooked politicians, crooked cops, crime lords running amok, land issues, hyper masculinity gone wrong and the seeds of apartheid violence and corruption.
It could sound grim but Sean Lee’s photography transforms the real small town of Lady Grey in the Eastern Cape to Marseillies, which could have existed in current day Lesotho. There's some lush, beautiful photography that's in keeping with landscape iconography, with a twist of the African Savannah. I forsee a lot of SAFTAs for this in 2019.
The score is eerie and timeless. The kind that Sergio Leone would approve of, remiscent of films such as Once Upon a Time in the West, not as bombastic as the Good ,the Bad and the Ugly but there to give you mood and with the tick of the genre conventions without coming across as pastiche.
The costumes go in deep, mining South African, Lesotho and Western iconography to give a hybrid of Sanamerena, trench coats with cut up beanies and it all works beautifully.
But the heart of Five Fingers is its cast - the kids who fight the oppressors only to have to find a new form of oppression as adults with scars carried from childhood - this is touching. The young kids from the local Art school in the Eastern Cape give you that comradeship we’ve seen so many times in films like ET, IT or series such as Stranger Things and Diepkloof Dynamite Dudes. It's great to see this done within a local context on the big screen.
The adult versions of the kids are big TV and film names in SA. Vuyo Dabula is the lead who does his own stunts, Kenneth Nkosi proves once again that he can do more than just comedy, Mduduzi Mabaso does Menacing like no other, Warren Masemola shows that he's still one of the most versatile actors in SA and Hamilton Dlamini is a pure delight. This man knocks it out the park.
He gives his villan Sepoko a Shakesperian delivery that could easily have been gimmicky and comical but due to his performance makes it mythical and legendary.
The other great thing about Five fingers is its themes, especially what it says about violence. Like great movies such as a History of Violence, Shane and Road to Perdition, when all is done and said, the film shows us how violence and the past can corrupt the future if the right sacrifices are not made and the cycle of violence is not broken.
This is all delivered whilst giving us memorable Mexican stand off, "starring" action moments, great witty lines and heart.
It's slow for a movie of our times and the female hero could have been given more to do, yet it delivers so much on every level, it says a hell lot more than meets the eye. Go see this and then buy the DVD/blu ray when it comes out.
It felt like : Young Guns meets Akira Kurosawa with a sprinkle of iNumber Number in Lesotho.
Rating
*****
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* rubbish ** ja nee ***its aight ****now we cooking with gas *****it’s a Classic ,man