Shot Down

Made by the Johannesburg group Weekend Theatre, this follows the moral and political confusion of one Paul Gilliat, hired by the State Bureau to investigate a subversive township performance group and track down its leader, enigmatic Black artist Rasechaba. He hitches up with a bunch of white bohemians who perform satirical cabaret, and sees for himself the systematic intimidation by security forces and assorted right wing bully-boys. Turning his back on his employers, he wanders off into the wilderness to find himself, and ends up battered and bewildered, despised by Rasechaba and his cabaret friends. The film is at its strongest when it relies on the performance skills of the actors: the cabaret scenes are heady and dangerous, garishly lit and with a real sense of illegality enhanced by some (deliberately?) shaky camerawork. Sadly, too much time is spent following Gilliat on his interior journey, and interest flags after one too many moral crises. As a slice of South African cultural resistance, however, Shot Down is extraordinary, full of self-mocking humour, and - in bursts - exhilarating.