‘Salute’ is uncompelling

‘Salute’, an Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) film written and directed by Philippe Talavera, premiered last Wednesday night at the Warehouse Theatre.

A stellar cast of Namibian actors such as Adriano Visagie, Odile Muller, David Ndjavera and newcomer Monray Garoëb caused a lot of hype and attracted a large crowd.

However, the moment didn’t live up to the expectation, at least not for me. The story follows the main character, Carlito ‘Kado’ (Visagie), who is sentenced to three years in prison for fraud, leaving his pregnant girlfriend to fend for herself in the real world.

The film jumps straight to the trial and imprisonment of Kado, not leaving room for a proper introduction of the characters. As soon as Kado sets foot in the prison yard, a thug, played by Dawie Engelbrecht, approaches him and lures him into a gang, where Kado later becomes the ‘wyfie’ (‘b*tch’) of the general, played by a very convincing Garoëb.

Although Garoëb delivered a well rounded performance, the same cannot be said for the rest of his gang. The gross exaggeration of facial expressions, unnecessary use of out-of-date slang and poor acting led to the gangsters coming off as comical and unconvincing. The only thing threatening about Engelbrecht playing a thug was his chest hair spreading out from under his vest.

Although the overall story line relating to prisoners having access to condoms, the illegality of sodomy and stigmatisation of homosexual relationships was an important message, the execution of the film was ultimately poor.

The story lacked proper character development, chemistry amongst the actors and authenticity of prison circumstances.

Another bothersome aspect was the visible similarities to ‘Noem My Skollie’, the South African film which also deals with life behind bars, as well as the influence of the infamous numbers gangs, a culture which is distinctly South African and not relatable to the Namibian audience.

Although Talavera aimed for the moon and missed entirely on most of the elements pertaining to a good film, his inclusion of nudity, sex scenes as well as displaying rape and man-on-man sex were bold steps by the director to broaden the minds of the audience.

Although Muller didn’t have a major role in the film relating to screen time, her performance was by far the most memorable and genuine, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from the seasoned actress.

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