Hopeville

What it's about:

Hopeville is a story of one a man who wants to restore a broken relationship with his son. Amos Manyoni (Themba Ndaba) is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to gain his son’s Themba (Junior Singo) trust after disappointing him time after time. Amos moves to a small town called Hopeville with his son to start over and begin a new life. Determined to mend his relationship with his son, he sets about restoring the town's dilapidated communal pool, but the municipality will not let him.

What we thought:

Since Hopeville has already been aired on TV as a mini-series one would think that the movie would be boring and you would fall asleep while watching, because it’s basically the same thing that was on TV, but this proved to be incorrect when you watch the movie it feels like a different movie.

Condensing the story into one feature really works better than the series because the journey of Amos' road to redemption feels more immediate. As a series one can only watch a few and think that it’s not that interesting or it will take to long to get to the end which is really what people will want to see when they watch it.

What makes the movie a winner is a the storyline, it is a beautiful story of one man who is determined to restore the trust of his son, no matter what the consequences. The aims of the story are so simple and explores how restoring a swimming pool can have such a huge impact in uniting a community and getting people to work together and in the process the man whom people look at as a nobody and makes such a huge difference not only in his life, but of others as well.

As a drama series Hopeville has reached about 7.3 million viewers. It was shown at a number of film festivals around the world and has been nominated for Best Drama and Mini-Series at the prestigious Rose d'Or global television festival awards to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland, in September this year. According to one of the executive producers, Mariki van de Walt, they decided to make the series into a movie because of the reception it received.

"We felt that we needed to reach more people and we are hoping that people will come out and watch it," said van der Walt.

Hopeville is not only good because of the heartfelt story, but also the effort that all the actors have put into their acting to deliver brilliant performances.

As our main protagonist, Themba Ndaba does such a great job. The man makes you feel like you are there with him as he struggles through his dilemma. You can feel the emotion that he is going through and the determination that he has to make things right with his son.

Fana Mokoena and Paul Luckoff bring a humorous side to the movie, which takes you away from the intense emotion that plays out over much of the film. Desmond Dube also plays his role very well as Hopeville's greedy and corrupt mayor. Mayor Patrick Gumede would rather rezone the area where the swimming pool is located so that a bottle store can open there.

What makes Hopeville so worthwhile is that it is a human interest story anyone can relate to it. It is so relevant to this time and to this country where apathy is all-too prevalent and people are likely to wait for someone else to make things happen for them.

It’s an inspiring movie that aims to help people understand that with positive action and determination one can achieve anything.