Educational Media Reviews Online

Beginning with an April 1994 address by Nelson Mandela the week prior to the first democratic elections in South Africa, this documentary takes an intimate look at the lives of an affluent white family, the Silbermans, and their live-in black domestic employee, Frances Mncam. The personal portraits are combined with an examination of the effects of the pending historic general election. A brief discussion of the political parties in the election, and the political climate in general, is included, but the focus is on the personal lives and opinions.

Daily activities and responsibilities for both the employers and employee are filmed informally, interspersed with brief, more formal segments of statements by current political and religious leaders. Tours are given, sometimes self-consciously, of the affluent Silberman home in a suburb of Cape Town, as well as the Frances Mncam's home in a township outside of Cape Town. Throughout the program, comparisons are made relating to the lifestyles and perspectives of the suburban employers, and their domestic employee's life rarely spent in her home township. While they perform mundane activities, the characters' concerns about economic instability and increased violence are addressed from a human perspective.

There are occasional technical problems, probably due to the effort to make the program informal and personal. The camera is sometimes unsteady, creating shaky scenes. There are also segments that are difficult to understand, due to outside noises and several people speaking at once. However, when languages other than English are spoken, high quality subtitling is used.

The program ends with the election of Nelson Mandela to the Presidency of South Africa. Personal reactions, hopes, and concerns for the future of the principal characters are shown. Unfortunately, no further follow-up is included. An epilogue for all characters would be welcomed. Initially, the program seems to provide a somewhat simplistic and surface approach to a very complex, multi-level situation. However, there are subtle focused treatments of sensitive human issues and personal perspectives, making the ultimately thought provoking program potentially useful as a discussion-triggering mechanism for students of Africana Studies, History, and Communications, as well as general audiences.