Charlie Vundla talks about his film, ‘The Tribe’
CHARLIE Vundla is a man of many talents. This was showcased in the movie, The Tribe, which he wrote, directed and played the leading actor (Smanga) alongside Louis Roux (Jon) and Terry Pheto (Laura).
The movie, which released nationwide on Friday, follows the life of a young university professor whose wife leaves him for another man.
“Smanga falls into a pit of alcoholism, drug addiction and sex addiction. One night he runs out of booze and goes to a pub where he meets a mysterious stranger (Jon) who claims to be an old high school friend. This friend is now homeless and the professor brings him back to his place and they develop this odd relationship where they help build one another up. And then suddenly the professor’s wife shows up and things get very complicated,” said Vundla.
Vundla explores the complexities of troubled marriage, a budding friendship and finding a way to make ends meet.
“There are different levels of depth in The Tribe and everyone may see different meaning in this film, but ultimately, for me, I wanted to showcase the late stage of growing up and realising that you either break down or break through,” he said.
Vundla said he also wanted to dig below the surface to find the failures inherent in middle-class entitlement, another theme in the story.
“The Tribe is a realistic, characterdriven story that examines what it is to be human through the universal struggle to survive when things don’t simply go our way, and we are forced to accept imperfections in ourselves and those around us,” he said.
Vundla has managed to created well-developed and nuanced characters who are intellectually enlightening as well as entertaining.
Jon is a golden boy who is able to talk his way out of anything. He is a life coach by profession and uses his charm to weasel into peoples lives. Having burned all his bridges he is now living out of his own car.
Laura, played by South Africa’s golden girl Terry Pheto, is a beautiful but troubled woman. She’s very insecure and often relies on her looks to get through life. This has created a deep self-loathing. She married Smanga because he was the first to see that, beyond her looks, she is an intelligent woman. Coupled with her lingering depression, Smanga’s discovery that he is infertile leads Laura to betray him.
In parts of the movie, Vundla uses cinematic sounds rather than dialogue.
“I believe that you don’t have to always speak it. I suppose it’s never really silence, there’s always something there, it’s just like not talking. I think when people don’t talk and when they’re in the same room so much is revealed even without dialogue and just with looks and twitches and things like that, so I tried to have an all-encompassing human experience.
“I wanted to hone in on this hermetic atmosphere because it’s just three characters essentially in one house for most of the film. There’s nowhere to hide. It was a challenge to delve as deeply into these characters and be as true to their fictional human experience as possible,” he said.
The film has screened at several international festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Africa International Film Festival – where he received a Best Actor award – the Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles, the Sydney Film Festival and the Raindance Film Festival in the UK.
“It’s a big honour to be featured at festivals. There are so many films that apply and only the best of the best are chosen, so to be part of that small club is amazing and I don’t, for one second, take this for granted,” said Vundla.