Lucky

Moving family drama
Let me state upfront that I am a big fan of the Film Movement library of foreign and indie movies, in fact I finally gave in and started my membership last year to their DVD of the Month releases. This is the February, 2013 release in that on-going series.

"Lucky" (2011 release from South Africa; 104 min.) brings the story of Lucky, a 10 yr. old boy living in a remote Zulu village in South Africa. As the movie begins, we see him anxiously awaiting the return of his mom fom a trip to the Big City. As it turns out, she died of HIV-AIDS and instead she is returned to the village in a coffin. Before dying. she made arrangements for Lucky to go live with his uncle (mom's brother) in the Big City. Upon arriving, Lucky is not particularly welcomed with open arms, and it doesn't take long before things come to a full conflict. Around that time, Lucky strikes up an unlikely friendship with an old Indian woman living in the same complex. At this point we are about one-third into the...

Intense story of the life of an orphan in South Africa, his struggle for a place where he can pursue his goals of an education
Understanding this video is much easier if you know something of the history of the nation of South Africa. Lucky is a young black boy and the video opens with his deceased mother being brought back to his small Zulu village for burial. While it is not explicitly stated, it is fairly clear that she died of AIDS, something that is very common throughout most of the African continent. With an estimated 18% of the young adult population of South Africa infected with the HIV virus and neighboring Swaziland having a rate estimated at 26%, there is a large number of AIDS orphans in that area. One of the most incredible statistics is that there is an estimated 1.9 million AIDS orphans in South Africa alone, so in this respect the story of Lucky is one shared by many other children. Some knowledge of this sad fact helps the viewer better understand some aspects of the movie, especially the scene where someone takes responsibility for him.
Once his mother is buried, Lucky is sent off to...

Stunning examinations of loss, obligation, age and race...
As summer approaches, "Lucky" can offer a welcome shelter from onslaught of comic-book themed action flicks. It can also provide you with plenty of questions --and maybe some reassurances-- about the nature of obligations and how we define "family".

At the start of the movie, the central character (Lucky, a 10-year old boy, is awaiting his mother's return to the Zulu village where he lives in South Africa. She returns in casket, dead from an acute illness that is not named (but is presumably AIDS). Lucky's father is already absent at this point, and the arrangement his mother has made with his uncle in the city (apparently Johannesburg) rapidly fails under the strain of the uncle's flaws. Lucky's fate ultimately depends on an elderly Hindi neighbor who first views him with fear, the man who denies being his father and an underperforming social services system.

The writing and acting in this film are spare and understated, the music evocative and the conflicts are...

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