33 Films and Mindset Concept Production House, The African Motion Picture Alliance, and The National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, in Association with Indigenous Films, present Matli Mohapeloa (Mo), Damphu More (Thandi), Sydney Ndlovu (Dill), Sello Sebotsani (Lebo the Lion), Palesa Mosia (Henchwoman/Albino) Nyeleti Khoza (Pickle) Director, Bradley Katzan; Producers, by Shaun Anidoo, Sibusiso, Ngobeni, Lungelo Nxele, Bradley Katzen; Executive Producers Shaun Naidoo, Sibusiso Ngobeni, Lungelo Nxele; Director of Photography, Sanele Mgobhozi, © 2024.
The highest purple grade of marijuana hypnotized me throughout this film; I mean, I could choke on the obnoxious, stinking, and pungent smell of dope. We call it Purple Haze or Hydro, which is very potent in North Carolina. It can even make you steal your children’s snacks on top of the refrigerators while their mother and your wife sleep in their cribs–the munchees. Here in Soweto is a new hybrid strand called Soweto Blaze. Transcendental! The doped mind would figure. It portrays the haze of being under the blanket of constant high and fantasy dreams influenced by the substance.
Have you ever watched the Cheech and Chong comic drama Up in Smoke (1978)? Soweto Blaze doesn’t fall far from the hallucinatory tree. Our review, Soweto Blaze, is told in a metadrama—a drama inside the drama, in a prolific narrative style. There’s not a moment of boredom or dullness in this film. Things keep happening at a breakneck speed. “Speed?” A generation ago, that’s what our fathers called the highs of their time. Anyone who produces such hallucinogenic shots, blazing the screen with kaleidoscopic graphic frames of images, washed in lighting that could make you go crazier, even loco, as you watch images of twigs like pretzels, dancing in the whirlwinds, must be high on mushrooms. That’s all good. It’s art. The most significant part of art is left to the imagination.
Excellent title, Soweto Blaze. I would look at this exercise doped and blazed out. Don’t let my family hear this; they’ll dismiss me to hellfire–Jahanama, they call it. They have never been there, but they believe in it. I do, too. “You must be burned to smithereens in hell,” they’ll say. Well, if you haven’t watched that all-time high comedy, I will let you in on it, but as briefly as IMDb could relate to us: Two stoners Cheech (Cheech Marin) and Chong (Tommy Chong), unknowingly smuggle a van made entirely of marijuana from Mexico to LA, with incompetent Sgt Stedentko on their trail—enough of Cheech and Chong. It’s Soweto Blaze time.
Mo goes to bed dreaming of a Food Truck; his purple-hazed, drugged mind takes him on a one-day journey to own a roadside business. Here is the dream: Mo (Matli Mohapeloa) enters his living room with a carry-out bowl to take a lunch break from his street drug run and sees a gagged and tied-down woman in his bed. Surprised and even afraid about what was happening, who had been in his apartment, and who was in his bed? Upon discovery, Thandi (Damphu More) is the daughter of Lebo the Lion (Sello Sabathani). His childhood friends, Dill and Pickle (Nyeleti Khoza), two potheads, had kidnapped the most dangerous and notorious killer mafia boss’s daughter for a ransom. Funny. Pickle and Dill think the kidnap would yield them a bunch of Rands so they can smoke their heads off.
Thandi had escaped through the balcony of his dad’s house with a duffle bag full of billions of Rands. She had jumped in Dill and Pickle’s car, mistaking them for an Uber. They had thrown her bag into the car’s trunk without minding it. Lebo doesn’t mind the ransom note. Lebo, her father, had wished Thandi dead. This scene is like kidnapping and asking for a ransom, but later asking for the families to take the kidnap off your hands. Dill and Pickle couldn’t get paid for whatever wishes they had. Lebo’s strong arm security, Palesa Mosia (Henchwoman Albino), couldn’t relent in letting Thandi out of the life of Lebo, especially after the discovery that Thandi made away with R2 billion from Lebo’s vault.
Thandi and Mo had forged friendships and seemed to get along fine. The chemistry was forming. A sort of Stockholm Syndrome. They almost always wanted to say the same thing, overlapping each other: “-And you came along.” And, “-Until you showed up.” She hates her “textbook narcissist and controlling psychopath” dad. Mo, too, has had a rough life. He’s been saving to have a roadside food truck. But the corrupt police officer had taken all his life savings from him instead of protection. “That’s my dream.” “That’s a cool dream,” Thandi supports.
Dill, Pickle, and Mo put the duffle bag with R2 million in the trunk of the car and never noticed they were carrying millions of cash. This is where the movie resembles Cheech and Jong, never noticing that the van they steal is laced with marijuana. Netflix reviewer Roger Moore says: “Katzen uses a split screen, simulated phone screens, and cuts so often that when the film stops cold–freezes up–you wonder if that’s a stylistic choice or a technical glitch…” What Roger posits here may be true. Yet, I am sorry if I cross him in his review. Maybe Mr. Moore was not drugged enough, maybe not on the purple haze strain. I am so doped off; I see the world of Mo and Thandi in crimson.
Yes, this is what I saw and found out. Pickle and Dill are tangy at a bite but tasteful and pleasant, like our duo lead characters here. In cinematography and direction, Katzen portrays a graphic picture of the characters and their reactions. Look at the cinematographic designs Kazen and his cinematographer, Sanele Mhohozi, used in the scene where Thandi is wasting shots from the machine gun. The kaleidoscopic frames around Thandi give a visual effect of a drugged mind. Mo’s marijuana mind is enhanced with creative activity, formulation of deep thoughts, inward exploration, euphoric sensations, uncontrollable laughter, and more. Yes, I am laughing, too, and I can’t stop laughing because I am doped on this high grade called Soweto Blaze. Try it.
There is no more spoiler alert. The money Thandi had stolen from her father was shared among the four: Dill, Pickle, Thandi, and Mo. Mo and Thandi open a roadside food truck that sells the new hybrid strands: Dutch Treats, Cheese Chocolate, Indigo, Skunk, and Alien OG. The most exciting part of this story is the names Katzen gives his characters–Pickle and Dill. In the world of ghetto neighborhood stores, you always find a baby cucumber soaked in a jar of vinegar at the front desk of every store. This tangy but tasteful snack is always added to most store checkouts. I have run a neighborhood store, and pickled dills are a feature. Naming lead players in this comic drama made my experience come alive, as I could feel a single bite into a pickle, bringing so much piquant flavor. In the composition of drama characters, names can be so important, directional, and meaningful. Dill pickles can be sour and tangy, but by God, our characters here are what they are: Pickle Dills.