The Cane Cutter movie abounds with historical context and value for present-day South Africans

The month of November is marked with the commemoration of 165 days of Indian Indenture and we acknowledge the role Indian South Africans played in the development of our society through the economy, culturally and socially.

During the 1970s all the theatres in South Africa were restricted to whites, unless one could attain a once off permit from the government for a privately hosted evening or an approved fundraiser for organisations such as the Coloured and Indian Blind Welfare Association.

Johannesburg had a thriving mainstream theatre world predominantly for the whites. The theatrical performances included ballet, dance, operas and musicals.

Impresarios promoted popular and classical international performers in tours that taught our people about European and colonial history. During this era, white South Africans had no knowledge of the growing cultural activities that emerged in the other race groups.

Actors, musicians, dramatists and artists used their talent and platforms to express their discontent about the Apartheid regime.

Similarly cinemas in South Africa were strictly segregated by race, in accordance with laws like the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act of 1953 and the Group Areas Act.

In the city of Durban, the whites had a widely spread cinema district in the CBD especially for them and the Indians had their district contained in the “Casbah area” Grey street area of Durban.

The Avalon Group established by AB Moosa and Abdulla Kajee, played a significant role in establishing cinemas that catered to the needs of the Indian community. The Avalon Theatre on Victoria Street was the flagship cinema of this business entity.

In Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Alexandria, a passenger Indian businessman, Thakor Fakir Dullabh (Delbro) established cinemas known as Alpha, Regal and Casino for all the ‘non-white’ race groups located within the areas demarcated by the Group Areas Act.

The family business was continued by his two surviving sons, Jayraj and Subhas Dullabh in later years until the business could not survive the competition from technological innovations such as the television and video players.

Historically, films made locally in South Africa favoured white actors and actresses, and during the apartheid era when black actors participated in local productions, it was primarily because the film required a specific role in an international film or when there was a government-mandated subsidy, which was subjected to heavy censorship and limited distribution.

The Apartheid government used a system of subsidies that supported films that were entrenched in Afrikaans culture and the white South African life. Films were made specifically for black audiences and were titled "B-scheme" films. These films lacked depictions of the political unrest and were strategically developed to steer the audience away from political concerns.

Often films that spoke of the Apartheid history told a skewed version which often portrayed the Apartheid regime as beneficial for development and structure in South Africa and promoted the angelic role the white man played in building our country.

The movie titled, “Come Back, Africa” produced in 1959 was one of the first that combined a documentary style footage of the plight of a Black South African surviving under the apartheid regime. It was directed by an American filmmaker Lionel Rogosin and had to be screened covertly in the ‘black suburbs’ of South Africa.

The movie focused on the harsh realities of racial discrimination and the related socio-economic disadvantages that impacted the quality of life of the black man. The film captured the realities of township violence and African cultural attributes which won an award at the Venice Film Festival after it was smuggled out of South Africa.

This movie launched Mariam Makeba’s international career. Under the Apartheid regime, films that were perceived to be politically threatening or if these movies depicted the struggles of a multiracial society were predominantly banned, which impacted the growth of independent and fully represented cinema.

In 2007, the film titled, “ The World Unseen” was released. It told the story of two Indian South African women challenging societal pressure, discrimination and apartheid ideologies in love and in their lives. It has been documented as one of the earliest narrative feature films.

The recent release of the movie The Canecutter is a film that incorporates many genres but fundamentally educates South Africans about the Indian Indenture history, the role and purport of the passenger Indian, and the historical interconnectivity of these Indian immigrants as they immersed themselves within the South African context of life.

The film set in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, is a narrative feature film that provides economic and sociological discourse, which contributes significantly to the historical value and content of the film.

The film alerts its audience to the blend of identities that have emerged amidst immigrants post the Indian indenture period and educates South African youth of the difficult socio-economic circumstances and the racial prejudice Indian South Africans experienced.

The film's national release on November 21 at Nu Metro cinemas is timeous as it coincides with the commemoration of 165 years of Indenture Settlement, other cinemas that will screen the movie include; Suncoast, Gateway, Cornubia, Galleria, The Glen, Killarney, Canal Walk and GrandWest.

The movie gives us a glimpse of what reality was in the past and allows us to acknowledge the setbacks that altered the lives of our forefathers forever. It is proudly South African, proudly mainstream, and rich in relevance and history. South Africans can now hear the narratives of the immigrant minorities, such as the Indian South Africans.

*The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.

DAILY NEWS