08 Feb The Script Lab Review: Of Good Report
By now, much has been said about South African director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and his controversial film Of Good Report. Whether labeled as child porn by the Rainbow Nation’s government or almost being banned at last year’s Durban International Film Festival, this contemporary take on film noir is equally as engrossing as it is disturbing.
Mothusi Magano embodies the reticent and dangerously collective Parker Sithole, a man who comes across as creepy in each scene. After landing a teaching gig at a rural high school, he ends at a local club where he meets Petronella Tshuma’s portrayal of 16-year-old Nolitha. At some point, the two engage in sexual activity that night. Things get tricky as he realizes on his first day on the job that Nolitha is a student in the literature class he teaches. Instead of leaving things well alone, the two engage in an affair setting off Of Good Report’s uneasy narrative on both thematic and structural levels. Lets not forget the classic he’s teaching during the film’s duration is Shakespearian tragedy Othello.
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