Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.South Africa remains a nation forever tarnished by its terrible past. The horrifically racist apartheid laws which ruled the land for decades more or less determine how the world views the slowly emerging country. Now, something else stains the resurrection, a disease which feeds on superstition, fear, and baseless gossip and innuendo. In Life, Above All, AIDS is that silent, unspoken killer, the main concern of thousands but a topic not openly discussed or defended. Such a backwards approach undermines some of this well meaning movie's more powerful moments, while simultaneously supporting the often defeatist notions of the populace. Young Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka) has a lot to cope with. As a teen, she must put up with the death of her infant sister, the abuse of her drunken stepfather (Aubrey Poolo), the dire situation with her sick mother (Lerato Mvelase), and the never-ending suspicions of the surrounding community. You see, her family is apparently afflicted with "demons" (one of many local code words for "HIV") and it is taking a toll. In fact, the dread such a diagnosis offers keeps Chanda from seeking help. Eventually realizing that inaction means death, our heroine takes it upon herself to break past the taboos and find a solution to her seemingly sealed fate. When it pushes past the cliches and the obvious literary leeway (it is based on the book Chanda's Secret by Allan Stratton), Life, Above All is actually quite good. In fact, it takes on the scourge of AIDS inside the African continent in such an unusual and unique way that it does the impossible - it actually gets us thinking once again about the illness and the lack of support from and in other nations. Granted, it may do so in a way that is a tad too melodramatic for such a serious subject, but the idea of one young girl taking on an entire tradition of terror and stigma provides an easy in for the viewer. From there, director Oliver Schmitz uses local color and outstanding performances to keep things in from getting too hokey or heavy handed.
In Ms. Manyaka, the movie finds its soul. She delivers the kind of grown-up performance that few of her peers can even begin to match. With her open eyes and fierce determination, she's like a one girl gladiator taking on every bad thing that crosses her path. Yet there is also a heartfelt compassion which adds to her issues (especially in light of her friendship with a wayward child prostitute), creating a complex subtext that the straightforward storyline often undermines. Indeed, we expect a bit more from Life, Above All. We hate to think that the problems implied are merely the result of a lack of education and the limited options available for the dying. Yet that's the message that keeps crashing into Chanda's ambition.
Life, Above All also walks a very thin line between the beleaguered and belittling the participants. For all their ethnic eccentricity, almost all the men here come across as rejects from a Tyler Perry casting call. For them, the world is all about sex and sickness with women put in their proper paternalistic place. Additionally, females find themselves once again portrayed as stoic and staunch in the face of crisis and concern. For the most part, Life, Above All provides an unique perspective on a troubling world trend. In the West, HIV and AIDS are afterthoughts in a long range realization of specific scientific aims. But elsewhere, where technology and the access to same are limited, apprehension rages. It is this hopelessness and horror that make - and break - this otherwise fine film.
