Catch a Fire: A Powerful and Subtle Film About Apartheid-era South Africa

Catch a Fire is a remarkable film based on a true story from the apartheid era in South Africa. While Catch a Fire doesn't end where it should for the sake of narrative strength because it wants to give us resolution and information on the real people it's based on instead - a goal I can't really argue with, Catch a Fire is powerful, well acted and riveting and also asks the same crucial political question V for Vendetta looked at, albeit in a much more fictional way: What and Who is a Terrorist?

What is truly amazing about Catch a Fire is not that it has the requisite moments of uplifting battle against a grotesquely oppressive system. What's remarkable is that Catch a Fire captures this sense of teetering, teetering - lives, politics, families - and the idea that everyone in it is merely doing what they think is necessary - from the political: becoming a freedom fighter or teaching a shy daughter to use a gun, to the personal: betraying one's husband or wife. Catch a Fire remembers that big battles happen in the midst of small ones, often personal and unrelated.

Catch a Fire is conducted in three languages English, Afrikaans and Zulu, and is subtitled inconsistently. Sometimes Afrikaans and Zulu dialogue is not subtitled (although it's clear from context) and sometimes English dialogue with a noisy background is also subtitled. All in all I could have done with less subtitling all around. The English is always clear, I thought and the rest was readily understandable from context most of the time. That said, the use of the three languages in Catch a Fire is impressive and helps to underscore the stratifications in South African society in an oddly mundane way.

Because of the subject matter it's easy to say "oh, of course Catch a Fire is Oscar material" but the construction, performance and direction really do merit it at every turn. Also, Tim Robbins as a South African police officer with a guitar? Creepy, complex and non-cartoonish echoes of Bob Roberts, a brilliant satire about a fictional conservative politician. We may hate what this character in Catch a Fire stands for and defends, but he too is only doing what he thinks necessary for the sake of his family ,and it is these sorts of juxtapositions that make Catch a Fire work so well.

I highly recommend you see Catch a Fire while it's still in theatres.