Movie Review: The Wound

The Wound *** ½ / *****

Directed by: John Trengove.

Written by: Malusi Bengu & Thando Mgqolozana & John Trengove.

Starring: Nakhane Toure (Xolani), Bongile Mantsai (Vija), Niza Jay (Kwanda), Thobani Mseleni (Babalo).

 

The most difficult sequence to watch in The Wound comes right near the beginning. The film is set in rural South Africa, among the Xhosa community, whose young men undergo ritual circumcision when they are teenagers. They are taken into the mountains, where one after another, they are circumcised, and then spend weeks out there, with some elders, having the ideals of masculinity drilled into their heads. You don’t see much during the circumcisions themselves – but you hear it, and it’s a difficult sequence to sit through. But that’s only the beginning.

 

The film basically centers on three characters. Xolani (Nakhane Toure) is one of the “caregivers” – older members of the community, who help to oversee the boys in the weeks after the circumcision. He doesn’t much care for this ritual anymore, but he spends the weeks there every year, because it allows him to spend time with Vija (Bongile Mantsai), another caregiver. The two have a longstanding sexual relationship that happens every year – and Xolani wants it to be more than that. Vija does a better job at presenting the masculine ideal they are teaching, and doesn’t see Xolani the same way. He’s married, with kids, and does little more than use Xolani every year. The third character is Kwanda (Niza Jay), one of the boys undergoing the ritual. He’s from Johannesburg, and his father has brought him out here because he fears Kwanda is going soft. Even he doesn’t suspect that his son is gay – the worst thing he can be in this community. It doesn’t take Kwanda, who is the smartest of the boys out there, to read the situation, and figure out what is happening between Xolani and Vija. Kwanda wants to be more open in his identity – but it scares Xolani.

 

The tension in the film steadily builds, as the secrets and lies eventually start coming out. The film is about the damage these secrets do to those keeping them – and how a culture of toxic masculinity and homophobia, poisons everything it touches. You get to know, like and understand Xolani – you feel for him, because he’s trapped, and doesn’t see a way out. You don’t really like Vija – who is a user and hypocrite, or even really Kwanda – you admire him a little for his willingness to try and burn this system to the ground, but he’s also more than a little bit of a whiner.

 

The film builds to an unexpected but shattering climax – the kind you don’t see coming, but makes perfect sense when it does. This marks the feature directing debut of John Trengove – a white man, but one who has obviously immersed himself in this culture, and understands it from the outside in. The film is perhaps too obvious at points – too on the nose – but overall, it’s a fascinating glimpse inside a community we don’t see onscreen very often – and yet one whose themes are universal.