What is Reasonable?
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A Reasonable Man (1999) features around a young black man's conviction of murder and
a white lawyer trying to come to terms with the past. Sipho, played by Loyiso
Gxwala, is an inhabitant of Zululand in KZN. He kills a one year old child in
his village thinking it is a “Tikoloshe” (an
evil spirit). Under the South African laws, Sipho is seen as a murderer and
convicted of murder. His lawyer, Sean, tries to plead his case that the murder
was not intent but the belief that Sipho was killing an evil spirit.
The movie directed and written by Gavin
Hood is a low budget feature film, but this does not under value the movie in
any sort of way. The movie deals not only with cultural differences and beliefs
in a diverse country like South Africa but also the psychological damages of
war on an individual.
Hood stars as the
lawyer who tries to proof innocence in Sipho. He gives a convincing performance
as someone in psychological pain, although you forget throughout the movie that
he, himself killed a child during the war, where Sipho killed a child thinking
it was an evil spirit. The movie could have explored the idea of running the
story of Sean and Sipho parallel so that the viewers see the similarities in their
stories and the psychological trauma they both suffer. Gxwala gives a
convincing performance of a young man trying to plead his innocence.
A Reasonable Man focuses on the diverse cultures and traditions that South Africa
has and how one tries to justify the concept of a “reasonable man”. What is
reasonable in certain cultures or contexts and how do we who are outside of
these cultures understand this reason? The movie also looks at two individuals who
are from very different backgrounds but share a personal battle that has some
relation to each other.
Further Reading:
The Past is Very Much Part of the Present
