Jewel is a South African drama movie directed by Adze Ugah and written by Glenrose Ndlovu primarily, starring Connie Chiume, Michelle Botes, and Nqobile Nunu K.H. as the lead cast with Senzo Radebe and Robert Whitehead as supporting actors. The movie runs for 120 minutes.
Netflix summarises the movie as:
A photographer finds herself drawn to a local woman but their romance stirs up painful memories from the past.
– Jewel Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
The movie opens with a brief history of the apartheid regime in South Africa, followed by an almost melancholic but still uplifting tune in the background while showcasing the lush greens of the country. The first minute encapsulated everything that the country has endured without saying or showing anything vividly.
Its discreteness in showing where the Black community stands post a massacre dating back to 1960 will pull you in with a certain heaviness and guilt in your heart. And, mind you, that is intentional without being overbearing.
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The movie trails the struggle of its protagonist Siya and a photographer hailing from Cape Town. It discovers how Siya finally warms up to the entry of a white woman in her life after shooing her off formerly.
Jewel follows a linear format in story-telling but is charged with a lot of flashbacks from the past, a past that one might be sharing with someone else without anyone’s knowledge.
The colour palette chosen by the cinematographer is shades of grey, rustic brown, and dirty yellow to give a worn-down effect to the movie, while the lighting is mostly natural to give a more authentic feel. After the amalgamation of these two aspects, the movie perfectly portrayed what it might feel like to dive into your memories and recollect fallen fragments of the past.
The river is an inconsequential character in the film, infused with the storyline at multiple points. It coughs people out or becomes a boatman, rowing people to their destiny, quite literally. The title ‘Jewel’ could serve as an irony denoting that the only precious stones the Black community has are the droplets of water on their body when the river breathes them out.
The film, quite early on in its running, introduces us to the core idea with the line: “Don’t act like our ancestors don’t exist”. The statement will throw the audience into deep thought about the atrocities the Black community has faced, how the world keeps trying to erase their history and the continuous rubbishing of their sacrifices.
Subplots of white guilt, karma, historical rewriting, and persecution have been incorporated into the plot. Jewel was shot with a hand-held camera during some scenes to add more authenticity to the structure and plot line.
Siya, the protagonist, utters the line “You took away my past and my future”, yet again making the viewers question their role in the lives of the Black community and their state in the world as well.
The first and the last shot of the movie are the same, proposing the notion that the movie is in a loop, which perfectly fits the storyline. For most of the movie, you will wonder whether this movie is about the black community trying to throw off the apartheid regime or whether melancholy is all that’s written in their life because all pathways of revenge lead to their communal demise.
Summing up: Jewel
Like all good movies, Jewel will stay with you long after your popcorn is over, and the drive back home will be fueled with questions. The film managed to capture a lot in just 120 minutes, and in that duration, your emotional capacity will seek higher ground.
Jewel is streaming on Netflix.
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