Bypass

What it's about: 

A gripping look into the human organs black market, Cape Town's top cardiac surgeon, Dr. Lisa Cooper find herself at the center of this seedy and dangerous world as she travels to a "transplant clinic" in Jalloh Africa after news that her sickly young son's last liver transplant has been destroyed.  

What we thought:

What does South Africa's top cardiac surgeon look like in 2017?  Refreshingly, she's a coloured mother called Lisa Cooper (Natalie Becker) who is at the top of her game. Female-centered, this film is gripping from the get-go. It highlights a mother's plea, for her young son, Sam, to get well as he is bed-ridden with a chronic liver condition. 

She sees him suffering, she feels utterly helpless and has become completely desperate to save his life.

After finally getting the news that there has been an accident and that Sam's transplant organ is on its way, it all goes horribly and heart-breakingly haywire.

Lisa, usually a woman who lives by a strict moral compass, desperately tries to find another way to help her son. Finally going down a path she hoped she would never have to she opts to contact someone in the underworld, mistakenly under the illusion that they provide otherwise "wasted organs". 

Travelling to a "transplant clinic" in Jalloh East Africa she soon comes face to face with the ruthless world of illegal organ trafficking and transplantation. At first the clinic seems like any other neat hospital facility, but it soon reveals itself as a twisted hybrid of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Shining. 

Lisa is soon faced with a series of unfathomably challenging scenarios, in which she uses gutsy but somewhat half-baked plans to escape. 

However, the villains in this film are excellent. Watching promising young actor Greg Kriek (Martin) is a joy as the tension is all in his face and the excellence of evil "doctor"  Deon Lotz (Dr. Wright) is thrilling at every turn - so much so you wish he was in every scene. This dynamic duo - along with Hakeem-Kae Kazim (Chris) - shows the pure evil that make this underworld organ industry tick. Profiting from the helpless and uneducated, they will go to any, however inhumane, measures to get the job done. 

With a lot of twists and turns this film is beautifully crafted in terms of cinematography and direction. It's never boring, although confusing at times. Often, in the midst of the chaos, there are some things that, unfortunately, lack expression and common sense. 

Certainly epic to see a woman at the center of South Africa's first medical thriller, this film makes for a great edge of your seat watch on a Friday night, but don't expect for it all to make perfect logical sense.