\n\u201cWhat\ndid you dream?\u201d Could there be a more powerful provocation to think\nof what we hoped for, for our future, for this time in our lives as\nSouth Africans? What did you dream in the year 1990? What did you\nimagine could be possible when you first learned that freedom was at\nthe cusp? Did you dream of how your life would change? Did you\nenvision magical images of the dead rising and dancing at the dawn of\ndemocracy? Who did you dream for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\nDid You Dream?<\/em><\/a>\nIs a deceptively simple story. Director Karabo Lediga creates layers\nof visual and narrative hints at its complexity. Boipelo wears a\nbadge for \u201cBest Hair\u201d in the dream they finally have. A hint at\nthe future where Boipelo will have to win at political games that\nattempt to undermine the black child\u2019s appearance in multiracial\nSA. A game more difficult to win than the simpler numbers-game of\nFahfee her\ngrandmother plays to keep the household afloat.\nThe events are set in a symbolic moment in South Africa\u2019s history:\n1990, when\ntransition\nwas thick with uncertainty. And the three children, who magnificently\nwield the world of this film, learn how to manifest their own dreams\nby taking up indigenous knowledge about herbs that awaken the spirit\nin dreams. They do so against their grandmother\u2019s advice and\ntransition from being afraid of what they have been taught about\nindigenous methods, to being able to take their dreams into their own\nhands. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even\nthe magically graded cinematography can be missed in its expertly\nedited approach, the dream world and the\nreal world have a similar glow. This is not the spectacle of a\nWakanda world. It is real. And it is also entrancing. Both reality\nand incantation work seamlessly together. One could classify the\nshort film as a kind of magic realism. There is an enchanting scene\nat the apex, where Boipelo eventually dreams. But the film is shot\nwith such ease of realism that it seems to hint at the ways that the\nsupernatural is simply a part of life; just as dreams are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So,\nin What Did You Dream? <\/em>is a needling for us to connect the\nmoment that we find ourselves in with our own dreams of freedom and\nreal transformation. Just like Boipelo and their cousins, we are\nasked to sit on our proverbial stoep, to look at our world, and see\nthe ways we can manifest the futures of our most hopeful,\nco-responsible dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch\nit on the National Arts Festival Fringe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a92021\nThe Critter. This article is licensed under a <\/em>Creative\nCommons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/em>\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"