Title: The Wait
Year: 2023
Country: South Africa
Language: Xhosa, Afrikaans with English subtitles
Director: Imran Hamdulay
Awards:
Cast: Siya Mayola, Cedwyn Joel, Ayden Croy
Crew: Imran Hamdulay, Khosie Dali (Producers) David Leite, Karla Peetz, Brad Bickerton, Mandla Dube (Executive Producers) Jared Paisley (Cinematographer:)
I have had my car broken into, more than once, while returning to Johannesburg. It is a normal occurrence and always a long wait at a local police station. Before apartheid, if you were classified as a non-white, it would take even longer.
This 15-minute short has a lot to say about crime, which is rife in South Africa, inefficient with poor systems (Most government offices and busy service centers would at least have a numbering system) All of these factors play a direct role in creating a lack of respect for elders and an indifference to people around them.
The fact that nobody helped the old man move to the next space, and when Mzu realizing the old man had been there for a long time, and the fact that the old man was not directed by the staff, nor helped by the people moving their seat positions that he decided to speak up. In return Mzu was treated with utter contempt, and then threatened to be thrown out of the station. As if to say “Why are you helping this old man? it is none your business.
It says a lot about how difficult it is for law abiding citizens in S.A., as they become more desensitized to others,
