You can never leave
Khaya finally gets his dream, but Mam Rebecca’s Black Door is always open, pulling you inside.
Khaya’s (Zamani Mbatha) hard work finally pays off and his bus is here at last! This young dreamer entered Mam Rebecca’s (Linda Sebezo) dark web of sex-work, drugs and tender fraud to pay off his murdered brother and business partner
Chuma’s (Thobani Nzuza) supposed debt to her. But Khaya originally moved to Johannesburg in hopes of starting a bus business. Now that his dreams are finally becoming a reality, he believes that he can shut The Black Door firmly behind him, even if leaving the brothel will mean that he has to end things with the love of his life Nandi (Sibonginkosi Tenza). But there are some doors that once we open them, will never shut again.
MY DOOR IS OPEN
“When the bus arrives, Khaya is happy. He believes he is about to become a rich person and that dreams do come true,” says Zamani. “He gets the bus and tender from Frans (Siphiwe Nkosi) on the condition that he breaks up with Nandi, because he knows that Khaya is living a double life.” His first day at work runs perfectly but a few days later he encounters a problem that only Mam Rebs can help him with. And she has a price. She’ll help him… on condition that he returns to her. It’s as if Khaya can never catch a break without some kind of sacrifice or condition ever since he entered this secret world.
“Mam Rebs doesn’t want Khaya to leave because he brings business to The Black Door by satisfying clients,” hints Zamani. “I don’t think Khaya ever regrets leaving, even after what happens, happens, because he only went to work there to pay his big brother’s debt.”
DARK DEBTS
In the underworld all debts comes with interest, the payment plan is never simple, and you could consider Mam Rebs the biggest loanshark. By Mam Rebs’s reckoning, Khaya is still indebted to her. And we’ll see her going to extreme lengths, like setting him up with drugs, to get her cash cow back and save the brothel from suffering financially. Khaya won’t return without a fight though.
“There’s something big that Mam Rebs does to get Khaya back. I can’t share now because it’s going to be a spoiler. There are challenges he faces,” says Zamani. And with Mam Rebs’s business continuing to lose money as Khaya fights back, we see this evil woman completely shatter Khaya’s dreams just when they are within his grasp.