FILM: Lucky  - It is also a tribute to the human spirit, to survival at all costs, and unlike many other local films, it puts the colour back into the bleak rainbow that forms part of our current film horizon and nation.

CAST: Sihle Dlamini, Jayashree Basavra, James Ngcobo
DIRECTOR: Avie Luthra
CLASSIFICATION:  13LSP

RATING: 8/10

Young Lucky (an excellent, unaffected performance by Sihle Dlamini) forms an unlikely bond with an Indian woman, brilliantly underplayed by Jayashree Basavra.

 He has just lost his mother to Aids and is in search of a family and a sense of belonging. He is also hunting for dignity in a city in which greed and crime has all but eroded humanity.

He is a metaphor, if you will, for some South Africans who seem to be searching for coherence and a meaning in their existence, as well as leadership and a sense of pride and belonging. All these themes are skillfully explored in Lucky.

The Indian woman observes the boy with fear and often despair. And who can blame her, for in the current climate, street kids often (but not always) seem to abuse friendships and money for drugs and personal gain.

 But this forlorn boy is more honest than most and is in desperate search of salvation and dignity. But above all, he needs a father.

The woman doesn’t want to get involved and also cannot serve as his father. How they survive in this bleak, inhuman world and how she leads him to salvation forms the basis of one of the most moving and beautiful films since Malunde or Izulu Lami.

Emotion is a non-existent luxury and sympathy an eluding drug against harsh reality in his torn life.

Therefore the South Africa as depicted in Lucky is almost reminiscent of post World War 2 Italy when Italian Neo-realism took off.

In the current small renaissance taking place in South African cinema, this film deserves to be seen.