There are a huge selection of foreign films at video shops, LT Simone Heyer looks at two new titles.

Yesterday
The Av Channel

IF you’re looking for something heart warming and heart breaking, Yesterday will be worth the popcorn.

Yesterday and her daughter Beauty live in Rooihoek, South Africa.

Their life is simple, but Yesterday fills everyone’s life with joy. Beauty is the light of Yesterday’s life and all she wants is to see her daughter grow up to be someone.

When Yesterday is diagnosed with AIDS after her husband’s other life catches up with him, she knows her life is going to change. When the village realises Yesterday and her husband are sick with a virus they don’t understand, they want them to move away.

With no one to support her family, and little money, Yesterday must cling to her dream to survive.
This is the first movie made in the Zulu language. It’s beautifully shot in a stark environment in a country that is still developing in parts.

Paradise Now
The Av Channel

SAÏD and Khaled are best friends, they still live with their mums, work odd jobs, and look for things to pass the time in dangerous Palestine.

One day, out of the blue, the friends are approached by frontmen for a terrorist group. It seems their names have come up for a suicide bombing mission in Tel Aviv. At first, Khaled is excited, they both support the cause but Saïd can’t help thinking there might be a bit more life to live. They make their martyr videos and undergo preparation for the mission.


At the meeting point things go wrong and the the friends are separated. Both are rigged with bombs that can only be removed by a specialist in the terrorist group.

They have an extra day to think about what they were prepared to do. Paradise Now is a bit slow to start, but is a simple, honest film about life in Palestine. You understand what the Palestinians go through daily, and how occupation shapes their thinking.