Synopsis
Charterston Township, December 1989. Professor Zamani is respected in the township. To be sure, he once raped one of his students but the com-munity turned a blind eye. Zamani used to rail against the apartheid system but those days are long gone. Now he teaches South African history in the Afrikaner language and grudgingly organizes the picnic for National Day, which commemorates the Boers' massacre of the Zulu nation... When Zani, the rape victim's brother, returns from Swaziland where he won a place in school, he is determined to change everything. In the small hours, in the waiting room at Johannesburg station, he runs into Prof. Zamani, who's spent the night on the town. They travel back together to the harsh reality of the township. In due course, Zamani regains some of his pride and Zani, inevitably, loses some of his...under the gaze of the women, who never renounced their dignity
Credits
Director (1)
Actors (3)
Production and distribution (4)
- Co-productions : Périphérie Production, JBA Production
- Foreign production companies : Ebano Multimedia, The Movie Magic Channel - M-Net, Framework International, Natives at Large
- Film exports/foreign sales : Playtime
- French distribution : Cinéma Public Films
Full credits (11)
- Screenwriter : Bhekizizwe Peterson
- Director of Photography : Jacques Bouquin
- Music Composer : Ray Phiri
- Editor : Christiane Lack
- Sound Recordist : Philippe Sénéchal
- Costume designer : Ruy Filipe
- Author of original work : Ramadan S. Ndebele
- Co-producer : Jacques Bidou
- Production manager : Marianne Dumoulin
- Press Attaché (film) : François Vila
- Production Designer : Naobie Noisette
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama
- Production language : English, African dialect
- Coproducer countries : South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, France
- Original French-language productions : No
- Nationality : Minority French (South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, France)
- Production year : 1996
- French release : 03/09/1997
- Runtime : 1 h 30 min
- Current status : Released
- Visa number : 87.316
- Visa issue date : 24/07/1997
- Approval : Yes
- Production formats : 35mm
- Color type : Color
- Aspect ratio : 1.66
- Audio format : Mono
Box-office & releases
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International releases
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News & awards
Selections (2)
Cairo - International Film Festival
Egypt, 1997
Out of Competition
About
"Fools" is aimed both at the black and white communities. So that the former can see itself as a community even in its most extreme contradictions, and so that the latter can no longer claim that it did not know the extent to which Apartheid disintegrated everything. I focused on the blacks because this system prevented me from really knowing the whites until now. Perhaps in ten years time, I'll be more knowledgeable about them. "Fools" talks about a people, the South African people, about its soul, contradictions and frustrated desires, as well as its psychology. Human beings, ordinary beings confronted with one of the most destructive systems ever invented: Apartheid. (Ramadan Suleman)