Though it has the smell from Tsotsi, may be due to the ingredients used, Jerusalema captures a more disturbing spirit of the black South African. While Tsotsi depicts the black South African, the blacks here are portrayed as hopeless, helpless angry victim who have no power to liberate themselves, Jerusalema stretches the story further. The victim has now acquired a destructive philosophy: All property is theft, argues the philosophy, if you are going to steal scoop it big and hope you will get away with it.
Driven by this wicked philosophy, Kunene, a young man from a humble goes for the trophy and through the gun, deceit- whatever means, he must conquer.
After Kunene is recruited into a nasty gang of carjackers, his ambitions to grow rich start to crystallize. Moving to the greener section of South Africa's largest metropolis Kunene, whose heroes are Karl Marx, Al Capone and Dale Carnegie, acquires a new status as a real estate crime boss who will not regard even the minimum legal manners.
But there are several things he must deal with including some Nigerian drug baron and police.
In the neighbourhood, Kunene attracts attention of a cult leader, at some point even suggests that as long as you are a black, its alright to go on and sin. This stinks, paints a disturbing picture that seems to recur in South African Literature and cinema.
Most captivating is Jerusalema's undisputed craft and quality in the crucial areas of production.
Mwenda wa Micheni (Kenya)
Cast: Rapulana Seiphemo, Jeffrey Zekele, Ronnie Nyakale, Kenneth Nkosi, Shelley Meskin, Robert Hobbs
Director, Writer: Ralph Ziman.
Produced by Muti Films.
Genre: Action, Drama
Minutes 118 minutes
Article paru dans le Bulletin Africiné n°10 (Ouagadougou), du jeudi 05 mars 2009, durant le Fespaco 2009.
Bulletin publié par la Fédération Africaine de la Critique Cinématographique (FACC, Dakar), avec le soutien du ministère burkinabè de la Culture, du Tourisme et de la Communication, du Fespaco, de l'Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF, Paris), du Ministère français des Affaires Etrangères, du Centro Orientamento Educativo (COE, Milan) et du Rurart (Poitou Charentes, France)