Zulu Love Letter

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission could not heal all the wounds left behind by the apartheid era. Thandeka, a journalist, is still traumatized by the murder of a schoolgirl, which she witnessed years before.

Thandeka or Thandi is a difficult heroine to like; in fact, she can be positively hateful because she is so full of hate and hurt. She has been an absent parent leaving her daughter Simangaliso or Mangi to be raised by her parents while she participated in politics and pursued her career as a journalist. Mangi was born deaf, probably as the result of torture Thandi received during five months in police custody while she was pregnant, yet 13 years later she still has not learned sign language to communicate with her daughter. She has divorced Thandi's father, a sympathetic South African Indian named Moola and is carrying on an ephemeral affair with a younger man. She suffers from 'writer's block' yet is contemptuous of her work mates, especially the "affirmative action snot-noses...who think that being black is a job description and that 'the struggle' refers to which cellular network they should subscribe to."

"In this richly evocative and compelling film, the director imaginatively picks through the haunting, psychic debris of South Africa's political history. Juxtaposing personal and national struggles, past and present, loss and recovery, emotional distances and bridges, trauma and healing, this unsparing exploration of history's often hidden recesses embodies women's experiences as well as tenacious spirit and, remarkably, offers an intricate tapesty of hope." - Jude G. Akudinobi, University of California - Santa Barbara