Jakhalsdans (2010) Reviews

• A south African production based on the truth of how music saved a village.

  sancheo242013-10-30

  A widowed schoolteacher, Mara Malan (Elizma Theron) and her daughter move to a tiny Karoo Town, in the Upper Northern Cape, named Loxton. Here she finds herself in little more of a village, barely remembered for dam wall, which broke in 1961, with gravel roads and donkey carts being the order of the day. As the school opens, she finds the school is in peril of being closed due to a lack of finances, and decides to save it. Her daughter notices their hermit neighbor, and attempts to befriend him. He leaves a letter to her mum, requesting her to please adhere to "platteland" (flatlands) conduct, and control her daughter. Greatly offended she replies with her daughter wasting her will to be loving and kind on his sort, quoting Matthew 7:6 from the bible that she will no longer allow her daughter to "throw her pearls before the swine". The daughter of Mara Malan, six-year-old Mia, plays a huge roll in the movie, as amid all the sadness and trepidation, she sets out to find a medicine for sadness. Her mother offers that by being organized, neat and tidy, one can prevent sadness; there is a CD, which she listens to when that does not work. Mia then enquires of the non-committing, self-professed poet, 'liedjieboer' (directly translated as song farmer, meaning songwriter) and troubadour repair man, played by Neil Sandilands. His reply is that he sings the pain out of his system, and if that does not help; then he drink his away sorrows. He then uses a beautiful analogy to when the dam wall broke 40 years earlier; the sun baked the soil so hard and dry that nothing would grow, except a mielie. Therefore, if she were to dig a hole, plant a mielie, and bury it with loose sand, it would grow. The music that does not come out is the hard mielie, and the loose sand represents love. As the loose sand softens the mielie, so love softens the hardest of hearts. (Mielie has become the norm to most English speaking South Africans and refers to corn on the cob.) Neil Sandilands is undeniably perceived as one of South Africa's most compelling, talented and versatile actors, having starred in six TV shows and twelve movies since 1999. In 2004 and 2005, he was nominated for Best South African Actor for the prestigious People Crystal Award (Peoples Choice Award) as well as the Prism Best Actor Award, alongside Colin Farrel, Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley. Mia is then seen bringing the hermit medicine, a mielie kernel for his heartache; she shows him how to plant it, which she explains he needs to organize his house, because then music will come from his heart, and when that happens, his heart will soften again. Little Mia arranges a little stage production for Dawid to perform before her mum and friends in order for him to get "music out his heart". Before his debut, he uses the Anglicism "Stage Fright", which he explains in mixed English, is when reality clashes with your inner troubadour, so please ask your mum for a 'knertsie" brandy, a slang term meaning 'tot or little bit'. The gate, which Mia opens for her mum at home, is very commonly used gate, found in the rural towns in South African as well as on the farms, and one often finds people dragging these huge gates open and closed. The little serenade becomes the solution Mara has been seeking and she decides to get big stars like Bok van Blerk, Robbie Wessels, en Juanita du Plessis, and Ruan Landman to perform before 3000 people and thereby save the school. (These are all top South African performers, except Ruan Landman, which is a fictitious name) Mia again goes to check on her hermit friend, who reports to her that wrote a new song, to which Mia discloses that her mother is trying to arrange concert to save the school. She also decides he is still in need of love. Her mother in the meantime has been searching for her and is beside herself when she finds her daughter in this horrid hermits house, which she screams out lashing at him, referring to him as a sick lonely man. When Dawid hears the hermit playing his guitar, he shouts "Hierts jy!!" This is a fabulous term of excitement, of jubilation, somewhat lost in the subtitles of 'hello'. It dawns on her as to his identity and she goes to apologize, addressing him as Sir, which annoys him, even further. She then refers to him as Mister Landman. He sums her up as desperate and in need of his help, then continues to that he no longer performs because of people like her. He then packs to leave in a temper and drives off in a temper, but knocks over Mia. Dawid is the first musician to offer his service as an artist explaining, "A song sung in solitude is no song at all" He adds, I will be there even if they have to drag me on stage with a tractor, but I am there!" Ruan Landman does then enters the hall acknowledging Mia and Dawid le Fleuer, and promises to deliver the biggest concert ever seen in the Karoo. "Landman jou yster!" translates to 'Landman you iron', a common colloquialism indicating a man of strength and honor. Ruan Landman is played by probably the most famous current Afrikaans Singer and songwriter, Theuns Jordaan, who released his first album in 2000 at Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, which surpassed triple platinum status in July 2003. This movie's first première was on 27 February 2010, at Jakhalsdans, just outside Loxton, Karoo, where it raised funds for the local school and children.