Article: Annel Lategan from women24

In 2004 Yesterday was a hit at local cinemas countrywide. It made the headlines again in December when it was shown for free at cinemas all over SA on World Aids Day.

This Darrel Roodt production not only has strikingly beautiful cinematography but strikes an emotional cord too. If you haven't seen the film yet, read on to find out what it's all about...

"Aids is the new apartheid," activists would say. But who's listening? Everyone thinks they know everything about Aids, they think they understand it all, and have heard it all a thousand times. But as I found out, if you experience Aids in the simple, straightforward manner that Darryl James Roodt portrays it in his latest movie, Yesterday, you realise you actually have no idea.

If you're not an Aids activist yourself, chances are after spotting the word 'Aids' in this article you probably stopped reading immediately. Face it; most of us are sick of talking about the big Aids problem, sick of hearing about condoms and 'test yourself' campaigns. Some think it's not their problem, while others think it's not the biggest problem (malaria and TB figures are worse).

The interesting thing is, no one who has come face to face with Aids thinks like this. No doctor who's worked with Aids patients, no social worker working with Aids orphans and no family who's lost someone to Aids, thinks like this.

To a lesser extent, this is also the effect the movie, Yesterday has. Without being overly sentimental, without shoving it in your face and without boring you, it shows you Aids. The plain, simple, true face of Aids.

The film depicts what Aids does to people, families and communities without being overly dramatic or too emotional about it. Yesterday is soft in it's approach and the truth hits you in a whisper.

The movie is about a simple mother, named Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo), living alone with her daughter in Rooihoek, in the KZN midlands. Her father, who named her Yesterday, believed things will never be as good again as they were yesterday. As the movie develops she herself becomes the personification of a memory of a better time. Although she is married, she rarely sees her husband who works in the Johannesburg mines.

Yesterday is a simple woman who dreams of seeing her daughter go to school and getting the education she never had. We meet her as she toils her land, fetches water and struggles to see a doctor, who only shows up in Rooihoek once a week.

Every week Yesterday journeys for hours to see the doctor. But arrives too late to get an appointment. All the while her cough keeps getting worse.

One day her friend, a new teacher in the area, offers to pay for a taxi to get her to the doctor. Upon arrival Yesterday is confused about why the doctor (former SABC1 presenter Camilla Walker) wants to take her blood when it is a cough that's bothering her.

In this scene Khumalo delivers a convincing display of confusion and ignorance about Aids, it's symptoms and causes. This reminds us how uneducated many rural women are about Aids and sex.

Weeks later Yesterday's blood tests reveal that she's HIV positive. Yesterday is shocked and confused. She doesn't understand how she got sick because her husband was her only sexual partner. An overwhelming feeling of sympathy for her circumstances clouds over you, a cloud that stays there throughout the film.

From here the movie follows Yesterday in her discovery of Aids. It continues with one revelation about how Aids is perceived in rural towns after the other. It also uncovers how it's experienced by a big chunk of our population.

The film truly lifts the veil on many misconceptions and preconceptions about what Aids is and how it's understood. For instance, her husband almost kills her in disbelief and shock when she tells him about it. He refuses to accept it, never mind admitting he is responsible. But nevertheless she forgives him when he returns. Maybe her father should have considered naming her Forgiveness…

Most women would dump, divorce and sue the living crap out of their husbands if they cheat on them, never mind give them Aids. But not Yesterday. She sticks by her man until the end. When her husband is too sick to continue working and comes crawling back with his tail between his legs, she not only accepts him back but also cares for him until he dies.

This movie is definitely more about survival and determination than it is about depicting the suffering the virus causes. It tells you the story of a strong woman and her survival. Yesterday refuses to get too sick or die before she sees her daughter, Beauty, go to school. It becomes her mission.

Yesterday is also the first feature-length film ever shot entirely in isiZulu with English subtitles; another breakthrough for South African cinema.

This film should encourage South Africans everywhere to fight Aids. Even those of us who are sick of hearing about it will change our perspective and realise the extent of the problem and why we need to talk about it all the time.

Yesterday is enlightening entertainment and visually one of the most beautiful films made in a long time. It's also the perfect film to show in community halls to educate South Africans about Aids.

Don't miss the exclusive screening of the film Yesterday on M-net, Monday, 21 February 2005 at 20:30.