Hijack Stories

Synopsis

A high-octane action thriller set in the post-apartheid South African ghetto.

Through themes of racial identification and reflections on Hollywood-style violence, Hijack Stories mixes social commentary and humour while looking at the most painful and violent aspects of South African society.

Sox Moraka (Tony Kgoroge) is a talented actor and part of the rising black middle class in Johannesburg. He fled poverty in Soweto to become a well-known television personality for South Africa's new "Rainbow Nation". Sox acts and lives the part, dating his blond co-star and living in a penthouse flat in the white suburbs. While hosting music video shows, the ambitious thespian dreams of becoming an action hero - the African Wesley Snipes. The possibility of landing a role as popular TV gangster Bra Biza sends Sox back to the ghetto to rediscover his roots. Bumbling along in an unfamiliar, violent world, he meets the street-wise Grace, who introduces him to notorious gangster and old school friend Zama Zama or the General as he is endearingly tagged by his posse. The posse consists of Fly, the kamikaze getaway driver, and Joe, a disillusioned activist whose prophetic asides about South Africa's current state provide a constant morality check. They decide that Sox is truly in need of 're-education' and so begins his crash course in the seductive, yet deadly, finer points of gangster life. One terrifying night, Sox learns that gangster life isn't all game play and, as a result, each of the characters' lives will change forever.

Details

Year

2001

Type of film

Features

Format

35mm Kodak

Director

Oliver Schmitz

Producer

Christoph Meyer-Wiel, Philippe Guez, Nadine Marsh-Edwards (Co-Producer)

Editor

Oliver Schmitz, Derek Trigg

Screenwriter

Oliver Schmitz

Director of Photography

Michele Amathieu

Sound

Richard Sprawkins

Music

Martin Todsharow

Principal Cast

Tony Kgoroge, Rapulana Seiphemo, Moshidi Morsheswa

Genre

• Black
• Drama

Production status

Complete

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Last updated 26th November 2005