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Themba: A Boy Called Hope

Written by Segololo from the blog Movieholic Rantings on 16 Jul 2010
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Themba is a young boy (Nat Singo) living with his mother Mandisa (Simphiwe Dana), sister and grandmother in the majestic beauty of a Mthatha village. He dreams of being a soccer legend. In a small village where everyone knows each other and the mother struggles to keep the family afloat whilst her husband Vuyo (Rapulana Seiphemo) is working in the mines. Life is hard 

Simphiwe

When a young man, Luthando (Patrick Mofokeng) suddenly comes to the village and says he is related to the family, Themba is uncomfortable at the man trying to take the space his father left. He struggles to protect his family as the head of the family. The family faces a tough decision when the mother finds herself drawn to Luthando. 

patrick

As HIV and AIDS remain taboo in the small village, Themba sees his friends losing family members, and the denial that some homes are child-headed orphanages. He realises that their happy place is on the soccer field. He gets together a team and starts entering local championships. 

Will his team succeed? Will his family survive? Will the family remain together when the times get tougher? Will Luthando be a true father figure in the home? 

boys themba

I am in awe of Stefanie Sycholt for her beautiful work as the writer, producer and director of this wonderful PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN movie. Please tell everyone you know to check this out… I loved everything about the movie – the beautiful scenes of Kwazulu-Natal and the contrasts drawn when Themba finds himself in the ugliness of Cape Town. Simphiwe Dana absolutely SHINES in her role – a TRUELY Oscar deserving performance. 

Jehn Themba

I don’t want to spoil this movie for any of you, SO I will highly highly highly recommend this movie. Just go see Doctor Khumalo and the German/arsenal Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in their cameo roles, if my other reasons are not worthy enough. 

Doc Khumalo
(Doc, please take off this hat. It was very unappropriate for this movie. considering the role you played)

themba

The movie starts showing at Ster-Kinekor on the 16 July 2010. 

more pics of the KICKOFF sponsored premiere at Maponya Mall on www.snaparazzi.co.za

28 Comments

carino
16 Jul 2010 13:53

WOW... great... I love that boy that boy. Will def go and see this.

Now, Segs...some geography question...

You say...

Themba is a young boy (Nat Singo) living with his mother Mandisa (Simphiwe Dana), sister and grandmother in the majestic beauty of a Mthatha village.

loved everything about the movie – the beautiful scenes of Kwazulu-Natal and the contrasts drawn when Themba finds himself in the ugliness of Cape Town.

Kanti do they via Umlazi on their way to the Cape??

pele
16 Jul 2010 14:52

thanks for the info, but i hate your right advertisment of cartooned chairs can't you try to move them a liitle bit. Your articel looks abit sqaushed , no air at all.

Cande
16 Jul 2010 15:01

I was listening to Chriselda Kananda's show the other day, she had some of the actors in studio. Shem i have never been to a cinema and dont even know what is the procedure but would love to watch.

Lobby the girl
16 Jul 2010 15:01

Checked in Southgate if it's showing but nothing..meaning i have to go to Maponya mall or West gate..eish

BigMama
16 Jul 2010 15:17

@Cande...Shem i have never been to a cinema and dont even know what is the procedure but would love to watch. l don't understand, does this mean you have only watched the movies at home or am l getting it wrong?

l would go and watch this one.

lol @pele.

Cande
16 Jul 2010 15:19

yes Biggie, i have never been to a cinema. LoL

Cande
16 Jul 2010 15:24

LMAO Pele, lol Sego eish these pics always make u articles look squashed

Segololo
16 Jul 2010 15:27

@ makisto - I would rate it 105  out of 5...

@ carino - please give me a short geo lesson, dear... the whole renaming biz has got my bantu educated mind very confused. HELP a sister out

@Cande - please go see this movie with a couple of friends at the theater, please lovie...

@Pele. thanks for the advise. I have adjusted them. is it better?

@Lobby, make sure you see it... It will be worth every cent and struggle to get to where you need to see it.

Cande
16 Jul 2010 15:44

LOL Carino, i think it was a mistake. The movie was actually filmed in EC and CPT!

carino
16 Jul 2010 15:53

LOL @ Sego... Mthata is in  the Eastern Cape... well, I think so.

blaqueboi
16 Jul 2010 16:01

not another AIDS movie... *sigh*

Cnglemother
17 Jul 2010 02:35

Sego is it in vernac/engels?

ThatDude
17 Jul 2010 06:22

The movie was shot in port st johns in eastern cape

carino
19 Jul 2010 13:43

not another AIDS movie... *sigh*

I am almost tempted to reply to you here, blaque.... but I'd rather come back and do it later when I've calmed down. Don want my emotions clouding my judgement.

Just  that, reading this:

As HIV and AIDS remain taboo in the small village, Themba sees his friends losing family members, and the denial that some homes are child-headed orphanages. He realises that their happy place is on the soccer field. He gets together a team and starts entering local championships.

I got a picture of a village I know... with children running around with very little hope...and actually no place to find it. . .  not knowing what exactly is killing their parents.. not even with an understanding of why their mothers are all dying and their fathers are nowhere to be found.

I get a picture of a village I know... that has an 11 year old child, sick but having to take care of her 4 younger siblings and their mother who never cared until she got the disease and remembered where her home is.

Now when I suddenly see this comment from you, the sorrow in my heart was all of a sudden replaced by anger.. so while Im still trying to make sure whether I am angry of sad.. lemme stop typing, get a cup of coffee and I will come tell you later why I think there's nothing wrong with having yet another AIDS movie.

lalalala
19 Jul 2010 13:59

I agree 'not another AIDS movie' and we say it deserves an Oscar. All we want to put out there is that SA has lots of AIDS, and those are the only stories we can tell in SA. Please, we have other feel good stories, yes we know there's lots of AIDS and suffering but do we have to dwell on it. If you're broke, poor, sick - you don't sit all day dwelling on that. You have other things that make you happy in life. We had YESTERDAY, also AIDS movie, TSOTSI, about Hijacking but also the guy'as kother had died of AIDS - It's enough now, why are we dwelling on this AIDS, lets show the world we have other things. Hollywood doesn't show us movies only about their sorrow and sadness, they have other good stories, that doesn't mean they have no AIDS there but they know as humanbeings you can't harping on one point forever and ever. Those who fund movies can they please fund other projects not only AIDS stuff. We hear about it enough already in educational projects and other statistics about SA being the highest country with AIDS but that's not all we are about. Not disrepecting the actors, they were good but I just feel we beat the same drum in this country for too long. I would like to see a movie about a SA lovestory that has no AIDS point in it, a story about missing children with no AIDS point. That's not all we are about. If we keep dwelling on it like this, it's never gonna go away. We have other brilliant stories that have nothing to do with AIDS but no one is funding them but once you jump into the AIDS bandwagon everyone gives you money.

carino
19 Jul 2010 14:16

Batho ba ba reng ho ngolwe feel good story.... ngisho kubo, phakamani nizibhale.... Yekani to sit on the side marking right or wrong on our work thinabasebenzayo....

We write what we see, if you think there can be a good feel-good story in Port St Johns... write it... we'd love to see it. 

Just dont give a 'sigh' when you see a great movie based on the sombre reality of our villages and the lie called HIV....

This Themba movie is a great story... and its moving.

The people who are brave to tell stories did a brilliant "White Wedding" not so long ago.... and some South Africans still had something to say about it... but still made copies of the poor thing that it ended up not making so much...

So when we have a good AIDS stories to tell, lets embrace them... at least they have potential to get nominations some place high... other than trying to do replicas of aboBest Man and end nowhere with them.

If you dont want to watch another AIDS movie... I suggest that you buy uMadluphuthu... I'm sure he deals with the lighter feel good issues...

carino
19 Jul 2010 14:24

Besides I think this is a story is more about soccer and Themba's strongwilled spirit to push for survival in a world thats constantly pushing against him.... more than it is about AIDS.

So people lets watch and support this movie..

u4me
19 Jul 2010 14:27

the guns and knives are out again, let me take cover

Chix
19 Jul 2010 14:44

Wow guys you don't have to fight so hard....ahyi bo...anyway I think we all have a right to EXPRESS our feelings and opinions withot offending the other....I don't this in-fighting is necessary!!! Anyway I would like to see the movie mna...that boy is GOING PLACES...

Sothile
19 Jul 2010 14:46

@u4me...there are no guns here, people are expressing their views towards this movie.

l personal do not see why the 'sigh' about another AIDS movie, no one is forced to watch it... If you find it uneducational or think that AIDS is given too much attention just know that some people do want that knowledge, that you think you have mastered.

nice
20 Jul 2010 08:55

Loved it Sego, i watched it last night. 

I have so much to saym and dont want to spoil for those that havent watched it so i will just shut up. 

The only issue I had, was with the non-Xhosa actors who were forced to speak Xhosa, it becomes so obvious and annoying when they Zulularise Xhosa (speaking Xhosa with a Zulu accent) they must just get actors that can speak the language they want to act in, or make them speak their own language.

I give the movie a 100% and it is an AIDS stoey with a difference, a story with hope in the end. My that boy Junior Singo doesnt disappoint. He and Patrick make an interesting combination. The roles were written for them.

Simphiwe, Simphiwe that's all I can say, after the performance by Leleti in yesterday I thought no one would ever be that convincing, but Simphiwe made me think otherwise.

Go watch it people, but there will be a lot of emotions invoked.

Segololo
20 Jul 2010 09:14

thanks,nice....

THAT's whayt I want to hear or read... constructive criticism from people who has SEEN it!!! I am not against anyone expressing their opinion, I however think go watch the movie and then come moan about it being "another AIDS story". DOn't JUST KNOCK IT because you think you-know-it-all...  when you have not EVEN SEEN the damn movie!

BigMama
20 Jul 2010 09:47

@Sego, thank you for telling it like it is. l will be watching the movie this weekend then l will be back to comment.

stefanie.sycholt
20 Jul 2010 11:58

Dear Segololo,

Hi, I am the director of THEMBA and I want to thank you for responding to positively to our film. It's great after you have spent two years working on a project you really believe in to see that it is getting out there and touching people.

Let me assure the potential viewers this is not a film in which the AID/HIV issue is in your face. It flows into the story as it flows through the lives of so many South Africans. And THEMBA is first and foremost a family story. About the love that binds families across all odds. And that is something we all know how to celebrate, becaue I know i couldn't do what I do without the love of my family.

Also just to let you know it is not at all in any way easy to get funding for a film that deals with the issue of HIV/AIDS in some way, nor is it easy to get it out there, precisely because so many people say:  who wants to watch this.

Did you know that only between 1 and 4% of films distributed at the box office in South Africa are South African movies. I don't think any other country has such shaming figures for their own stories, own culture and support of their own stars.

And One thing I must tell you, I think the actors in my movie are real stars, South African stars that can hold their own all over the world and I am immensely proud of them.

And if you want one reason to see this film, then that is it ... go and see our own stars lighting up the big screen.

I wish you well.
All the best
Stefanie Sycholt

MaWiNiZa
20 Jul 2010 12:20

i love everything local....mara since i dont have enough time for cinemaz...i'll wait for the  DVD

pele
20 Jul 2010 12:41

eish i will go and watch this movie for sure, funny how some people will always complain without going and researching how much we need to watch films like these.
 We need more Aids/hiv stories until our citizens takes this plight seriously.
Stephanie and Segololo will definetely watch this movie with my friends and debate about it, life is not about glitz and glamour you know.

Thanks Sego for adjusting that ad...*wink*.

Segololo
20 Jul 2010 13:31

Thanks, Stefanie for the response. 

The movie is amazing and completely relevant to our society. For those whop want to live in denial about the reality of HIV/AIDS and child-headed homes WITH dreams and their challenges, you need to watch this movie and realise that your rosy glasses are blurring your view.

The reality is the world has child-headed homes as some parents do not take responsibility for their lives. A lot of our South African towns are ravaged by the disease and these ophans carry on without complaint. AND they try to achieve their dreams.

This movie is worth watching, never wanted to compare it to Yesterday because they are so different in the angle and story. 

Go watch the movie, come back here and tell us what you think!  

stefanie.sycholt
20 Jul 2010 18:06

And to everyone out there. Please do try see it on the big screen because I promise you it is so much more impressive there than on a DVD.
Regards from Stefanie

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