I often cringe when I see international representations of South Africa in movies and series, and let’s not even get started with the accents.

Perhaps that’s why I’m so keen to check out Nommer 37, which premiered on Monday night at Ster-Kinekor Tygervalley Centre.

South African director, South African cast, South African crew – lekker.

The film was selected to premiere at SXSW (South by South West) International Film Festival in March, and the film’s writer and director, Nosipho Dumisa, has been widely lauded for her efforts.

Via the trailer on YouTube:

Randall, a criminal recently crippled by an injury sustained in an unsavory deal gone-wrong. Wheelchair-bound and cooped up in his apartment in a rough Cape Town neighborhood, with no one to support him except his devoted girlfriend Pam. Randall is heavily indebted to a sociopathic loan shark named Emmie.

With no way of paying the money back, he despairs for himself and Pam as Emmie violently demonstrates what will happen if Randall doesn’t settle his debt before the end of the week. However the gift of a pair of binoculars from Pam enables him to watch the shady comings and goings in the apartments across from his – initially it was intended as a toy for helping him kill time. However, this presents him with an opportunity to get his hands on the money he so desperately needs – but at great risk.

Props to all those involved, because this one looks right on the money:

The movie earned rave reviews on sites like the Hollywood Outsider and Macguff, but let’s see what the Hollywood Reporter had to say:

If you’re going to steal, steal from the best. That certainly applies to South African writer-director Nosipho Dumisa, who takes the premise of one of her favorite [sic] films, Alfred Hitchcock’s voyeuristic man-in-a-wheelchair thriller Rear Window (1954), and gives it a grittier, much more sanguine spin in her debut feature, Number 37…

While it would be fairly easy to simply replicate the setup of that film and just transfer the action to South Africa, Dumisa wisely elects to play off of fan expectations and deliver a movie that is willing to take more than a few chances…

Nosipho Dumisa has paid tribute to a classic, while simultaneously building something completely her own. Hitchcock would be proud.

The movie will open nationwide on June 1, so let’s hope local audiences are just as full of praise.

[sources:youtube&hwoodreporter]