Ayanda and the Mechanic dir. Sara Blecher (2015)
I have a laundry list of films made by African filmmakers set in African countries that I hope to see one day. These films very rarely get distribution, even within their own home countries, not because they’re not good but because of a toxic mess of ethnocentrism, racism, and sexism. Usually it’s only the films that make it into major European festivals like Cannes, Berlin and Venice that have a shot at distribution and those festivals aren’t known for their generous programming of African features either. Ayanda, a South African indie, is that rare African film that didn’t premiere at a major European festival but still obtained distribution in North America thanks to indie distributor ARRAY and their partnership with Netflix.
Set in the Johannesburg suburb of Yeoville, the film concentrates on the titular Ayanda, a 21 year old furniture refurbisher who is still reeling from the loss of her father 8 years before. Ayanda comes from a family of entrepreneurs (her mother, brother and Zama, the family friend she thinks of as an uncle, all run their own businesses) and Ayanda is no different, running her own small business out of her deceased father’s garage. When Zama informs the family that the garage is bleeding money and they’d be better off selling it and pocketing the proceeds Ayanda decides that she must do whatever it takes to preserve her father’s legacy. She goes from remodelling furniture to remodelling stylish vintage cars in the hopes that she can string together enough sales to make the garage solvent.
It struck me watching this that what makes Ayanda so unique to my eyes was that it wasn’t the typical poverty porn portrayal of an African country. Instead the film is about one woman and her specific struggle to honour her father without deifying him. At the same time the movie is very much a love letter to Yeoville, a multi-cultural pan-African community. It wasn’t a place I had heard of before the movie, but screenwriter Trish Malone and Sara Blecher make the suburb as much of a character as anyone else in the movie. The script uses a young photographer interviewing different people about the city as a device to break the 4th wall. It’s a technique that could have come across as insincere but Malone and Blecher use just the right blend of main characters and random side characters to balance the interviews out and give the city real flavour.
I was surprised when I pressed play at just how long Ayanda was, especially when I was expecting it to be more of a light-hearted comedy. The film is light in tone and does have moments of comedy, but the lengthy running time also gives room for the relationships of the film to really grow. In the long form title of Ayanda and the Mechanic the mechanic has a double meaning, referring perhaps to Ayanda’s father whose presence guides the actions of many of the characters, but also to Ayanda’s lover, a Nigerian refugee who longs to be a lawyer but who gives up opportunities to stay near Ayanda and help her save her father’s shop. There’s also a plot line involving Ayanda’s “uncle” Zama that allows his character to be imperfect and complex.
Fulu Moguvhani, who plays Ayanda, is solid in her debut role. The other stand out is Kenneth Nkosi as Zama, who takes a character who does some pretty reprehensible things and makes him sympathetic.
It’s disappointing that African films have to jump through so many hoops not only to get made but to get distribution. Ayanda isn’t the type of film that would get into a prestigious European festival or win awards but it’s a good film that was enjoyable to watch. It left me wondering, as the credits ran, about all the other great films I’ll never see because of the messy politics of film distribution.
