An Amazing Movie You're Lucky to Watch
An Amazing Movie You're Lucky to Watch
The Flyer is a South African movie made in 2005 that has been released only in a few countries NOT including any other English language country. Unlike almost every movie made in an English Language country it does not have a Wikipedia article. IMBD is almost the only place to even read anything about it. And even there, the description of the plot and characters differs from one of the two reader reviews. You're lucky to watch it probably only because Nowhere Man is going to post it on this article.
From IMBD:
Kieren is living on the street and steals to survive together with his best friend. One day he is caught in the act and the man he tried to steal from, a trapeze artist, brings him to his home to make him work off his debt. Gradually, Kieren becomes fascinated by the trapeze artist and a new world opens up to him, but can he escape his past?
The viewer reviews:
1. Alive, unusual, moving - a South African 'Billy Elliot'
God-12 16 May 2005
I saw this film this evening. This is what I thought about it:
The photography of the acrobats is well done and it is interesting to see some of the detail of how it works. The photographs of Cape Town are also good, though they certainly don't give much of the tourist view!
This is a good film about the conflicts involved in growing up poor, getting involved with a bad set, then trying to make a success out of life. I think that it manages to explore the frustrations of teachers or mentors as well - and also the pathos of a once great performer giving his life meaning through the success of the pupils.
The plot works reasonably well, the acting is generally solid with some entertainingly well done bits.
The atmosphere of Cape Town, particularly the gangland argot, with its local flavour almost masking its Yankish imitation is well portrayed - though some of what is said is better in the original than in the subtitles provided! A particularly good line was 'You were right, brother, it wasn't quite so cool up there' but the line was several times more effective in the argot!
It was a little disjointed at times and the motivation of the teacher/mentor figure weren't always clear. I was, however, most disappointed by the score. An anodyne apple loops style score was provided - Cape Town is the home of magnificent jazz and an improvised score made by local musicians would have been the making of this as a really excellent film, despite its flaws.
It is worth watching, as an enjoyable film, but it is particularly fun if you've been to Cape Town or are thinking of going some day.
2. Great South African film, wish we would get it in America
londons_burning 11 March 2006
Beautiful film about 2 brothers who live on the streets and how their separation at a young age defines their later lives. Kier, one of the brothers is helped out by a legendary trapeze artist, who trains him up to be his star performer. Spies, his brother, after spending most of his youth in jail is released and continues a life of crime. Kier tries to renew his ties with Spies without ending up in the same life style. Lots of emotion in this one, shows conflicts of culture and poverty issues.
I saw this film after living 3 months in Cape Town, where the film is set, and seeing the actual downtown locations in the movie was really cool, as well as the portrayal of the Cape Colored culture.
If you get a chance to see this movie, don't miss it.
BUZZ NOTE:
Although most of the film is in English, most of the communication between the characters in their youth and a few times later is in the local dialect, and subtitles here were in Chinese rather than English. Fortunately the copy that Nowhere Man will post will have English subtitles for when the local dialect is spoken, but most of the movie is in English. It was also difficult for me to determine whether the two main characters in their youth were brothers as one reviewer has said, while the IMBD note indicates that they were best friends, but either way they had a very close relationship. If you have ever watched the movie "Billy Elliot" as referred to by the first reviewer you would understand how a child who desires a certain calling notwithstanding negative influences can develop himself to excel, in this case with caring and extensive coaching. This movie does provide an excellent view into the culture of disadvantaged society in Cape Town, with crime being a direction taken by them, in which the film's protagonist has some minor involvement, but is able to escape from it.
Other than the movie poster above, this screenshot is the only image I was able to find for this movie:
I do recommend that you watch this film once Nowhere Man posts it, as this is the kind of movie that differs quite a bit from the usual Hollywood fare, and provides a view of a world with which most of you are unfamiliar, both with respect to the development of a trapeze artist, and a view of Cape Town life a tourist would rarely experience.
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It's always good to watch a movie about a person who can rise from disadvantage to some form of success or better calling. Think of movies like Pretty Woman, Great Expectations, Trading Places, Slumdog Millionaire, as this one does fit that concept.
I have it Buzz, in English with english subs for the dialects......
Will process it and post it.....
Excellent movie I agree!
Great. I've changed the title and some of the text to indicate that.
Buzz pretty much covered what this movie is about above....
All I will say is I enjoyed it.
I hope you will also...
Thanks, NWM. What a benefit it is for you to be here posting movies, especially those rarely available if at all, and your knowledgeable commentary.
Well, it's Saturday night over there, so maybe SOMEBODY will watch it. I'm going to watch it again to know what they were saying when they were using their dialect, (don't worry, it's mostly in English), besides the fact that the movie is worth watching more than once anyway.
My pleasure my friend, I certainly hope people will watch it.... It wasn't easy to find....
I'm somewhat curious as to why this movie has not been available in English language countries or in fact many countries when it's so much better, in my opinion, than the many fairly recent garbage "B" movies from Hollywood with no known actors that I've seen these days, most of which I turn off after about 5 minutes if not sooner. I was thinking that perhaps it does not meet the acceptable "ranking" requirement due to its depicting an individual who gains success in life although he was guilty of committing a felony, aiding housebreaking robbers who kill, in order to steal money and jewels. In fact he comes into possession of a suitcase filled with money achieved through such a robbery and instead of returning it, or giving it to the police, hands it over to the robbers, and is never caught for having done so. I think movies to achieve a rank that permits it to be shown would not allow the depicting of such a crime that does not go unpunished. For example, in the movie "The Inside Man", the protagonist carries out the perfect bank robbery, walks away from it unrecognized and unhindered, but that is the main plot shown as a flashback because the movie starts out with the protagonist speaking from a jail cell - how they ever discovered him is a total mystery to me. That was permissible, why? because maybe to be a movie permitted to be shown he has to be caught and had to pay the price, or was killed. In "The Flyer", the protagonist goes on in his life entirely free, and in fact successful.
I don't know why this movie never made it out of South African Theater.... it's one of the best that has come out of that area.....
It's not full of blockbuster scenes with guns blasting, it's about a boy who very early on has to make a life's choice. Good or evil.
It's sad in a way that his choice is confirmed in the way it was..... but the end result was kinda predictable.... It doesn't have the heavily promoted absolution ending that so many of these types of movies rely on.
Just a mild life goes on theme.... but then that is the truth of it LIFE DOES GO ON....
Last I checked there have been five streams of it...... but I will leave it up a while and see if more are interested...
It's a good story.....
Worth watching....
What? No car chases? How could it be a good movie without a car chase ending up with at least one car upside down? Is there a more recent Hollywood movie that doesn't have a decent car chase?
Has anyone besides Nowhere Man and myself seen this movie? It's one you'll never get to see elsewhere, and it will not stay online for very long.
Ah, Nowhere Man just indicated that there were 5 streams of it, one of which was mine. I did read that it was shown in some eastern European countries and a couple other places, recently including China, but not in any English speaking country except, of course, South Africa. For me, this movie was like a breath of fresh air, and you know I watch movies sometimes even two a day. Yesterday I watched "The Sentinel" starring Michael Douglas. It was partially filmed in Toronto and had scenes of the city, especially the old and new City Halls and City Square.
Only seven streams at this time.... two more in the last five days.....
I wonder if anyone is even interested.....
I don't think I had better comment about that. I have enough enemies on this site already.
I don't think you have enemies Buzz. I think you are a good guy. I think you tend to think that people in the US are more interested in Canada than they really are. I've never met anyone who wasn't a Canadian themselves who is interested in goings on in Canada. It's just not a subject that draws the interest of many Americans. Maybe that is a tribute to how well run and peaceful Canada is.
Although people have more interest in China, it is nonetheless also not a big topic of day to day interest in the US, as far as I know.
You hardly ever seed anything about the US, where the vast majority of NT members are.
I think I seed a lot more articles about the USA than I do about Canada. I had to delete the Canada group I had created because of total lack of interest. Most of my articles about China are photo-essays. I have to be careful about what I say about what's happening in the USA because I have been criticized enough times about not knowing enough about American laws, etc. but at least I have the independent viewpoint of a person who is NOT an American and therefore bound to be more objective.
Getting ready to take this one down, it's been up a week and has 24 hours more to go..... (9:00pm PST tomorrow)
Watch it now while you still can....
Any genuine movie-mavens should take advantage as they will most likely never have another opportunity to watch it.