Cape of Good Hope (2004)

Director:

Mark Bamford

Writers:

Mark Bamford (writer)
Suzanne Kay Bamford (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Love is the force that holds it all together.

Plot:

A Drama revolving around 3 women's lives and how they are intertwined.

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Debbie Brown	...	Kate
Farouk Valley-Omar	...	Indian Hotel Husband (as Fahrug Valley-Omar)
Parinita Jeaven	...	Indian Hotel Wife
David Isaacs	...	Habib
Quanita Adams	...	Sharifa
Nthati Moshesh	...	Lindiwe
Lillian Dube	...	Mama
Kamo Masilo	...	Thabo
Eriq Ebouaney	...	Jean Claude
Morne Visser	...	Morne
Nick Boraine	...	Stephen van Heern
Bo Peterson	...	Shella
Wayne Harrison	...	Mr. Nell
Anthea Thompson	...	Mrs. Nell
Rick Bacon	...	Consulate Official

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature situations including some violence, sexual content and brief strong language.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

South Africa | USA

Language:

Afrikaans | English | Xhosa

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Wonder View Films

Quotes:

Dance Instructor: [Kate enters the studio] Are you here for the class?
Kate: Um...
Dance Instructor: Come in, come in, don't be shy. We're just getting started. You're in luck. We happen to have one available dance partner for you right here.
[He leads her to Morne]
Dance Instructor: And just the right height. Your name is..?
Kate: Kate.
Dance Instructor: Morne, this is Kate - Kate, Morne. Now where was I? Ah, tango. Or what they call in Argentina, "the dance of love".
Morne: I have to warn you - he always humiliates the new person.
Dance Instructor: [Advancing towards Kate] Would you be so kind as to assist?

Warm and Charming Look at Multi-Cultural Post-Apartheid South Africa

"Cape of Good Hope" is the most charming, romantic, women-centered, multi-cultural urban dramedy since "What's Cooking."

Yes husband and wife collaborators Mark Bamford and Suzanne Kay Bamford draw some of the characters as too good (Eriq Ebouaney's "Jean Claude LeReve" is beyond Sidney Poitier in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" as literally a Renaissance Man) or too evil, and some of the connections among them are as forced in propinquity as "Crash," but I live in a large city of ethnic neighborhoods and coincidences like these can really happen. And it's a pleasure to see a film about the realities of age, gender, religion, race and class in contemporary South Africa -- including Muslims, Hindus, refugees, emigrants, Afrikaners, Christian blacks --in a humanistic, non-strident approach.

This roundelay of couples and their families have been as touched by the vagaries of universal human fate as by African politics. Each character prejudges another by their appearance or circumstance, and each is psychologically damaged by past relationships, and has amusing human foibles, pretensions or sweet ambitions that are realistically compromised. It is noteworthy that the characters are not the usual young 'uns in the throes of Romeo and Juliet-like first love, but wary, experienced adults who are incrementally challenging boundaries.

While the individuals' stories radiate out of their connections to a dog shelter as in J.M. Coetzee's bitter South African novel "Disgrace," the irony of anecdotes like a dog that was trained to attack blacks or the insistence of potential adoptive owners for a purebred instead of the affectionate mutts or the veterinarian widower who longingly whispers after the woman in charge "rescue ME", is a gentle look at the complicated post-apartheid city. All now have to learn to co-exist, and even become friends, as each person takes a step forward and brings their families with them. And, yeah, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

The acting by men, women and child is very natural across several languages. Accented English is their cross-cultural communication, but in the heat of moments with their own, each resorts to their native tongue. While it is lovely to see different neighborhoods in Capetown, the human experiences are universal. For example, the educational, economic and romantic strivings of immigrants are similar to what we saw in "Hester Street."

There is only a little music, but it adds to the commentary on local interactions with the global culture.

The conclusion may be a bit too idealistic, but by that point the characters have all been fully established and their actions do feel right for those appealing individuals. I don't even like dogs, but it does sweetly make one believe that it is possible that individuals will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.