Life, Above All

Seen through the eyes of a stoic 12-year-old, filmmaker Oliver Schmitz's Life, Above All—based on Allan Stratton's young adult novel Chanda's Secrets—tells a tale both specific and universal. As it begins, Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka) has lost her baby sister, Sara, to an undisclosed illness. To make matters worse, her stepfather, Jonah (Aubrey Poolo), has stolen money from her mother, Lillian (Lerato Mvelase), to buy alcohol. Chanda, who lives just outside Johannesburg, recovers the cash so that Sara can have a proper funeral, but this is a small victory before her troubles start to accumulate. When Lillian falls ill, Chanda helps to care for her younger siblings with assistance from Mrs. Tafa (Harriet Lenabe), a loving widow neighbor who is also very pious; she looks down not just on Jonah, but also on Chanda's sweet-tempered friend, Esther (Keaobaka Makanyane), an orphan who wears outfits Mrs. Tafa finds inappropriate. When Lillian's condition worsens, Mrs. Tafa recommends that she return home to her village, ostensibly to recover, leaving Chanda to tend to Esther singlehandedly when some truckers rough the girl up. Only when the situation couldn't become much worse do Chanda's fortunes finally begin to improve. In Schmitz's capable hands, Life, Above All takes a sobering look at the awful consequences when ignorance and superstition overtake comfort and support for those struggling with substance abuse and AIDS. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)