Representation is a key issues in South African media. Many may not appreciate the depiction of black characters once again as criminals. I suppose the middle-classes get offended and maybe the political hierarchy gets offended, and maybe a section of the African Diaspora gets offended. There is a rift that has grown very quickly in this country between rich and poor and talking about it will cause discomfort. Talking about it in the context was much easier politically, maybe, but what I am talking about is not criminals or glamourising criminals, but township life and the forgotten poor, scarred by a violent past.
Art is a search for meaning and the essence of things, surely.
Culturally there is an extreme need for definition of meaning here right now. The best way to see if the film is accurate will be to show it to an audience of car hijackers in Zola I think. The material is based on the lives of real gangsters, some is imagined, some is invented. Hijack was shot on Fuji 35mm over 7 weeks in the wettest summer in Joburg history. The budget was about R17 million.