Name: Senzeni Na?
Genre: Short
Duration: 30 min
Rating: 6.7
Cast: Sam Phillips, Dudu Mkhize, Ivan Berold

The reality of apartheid through the lens of fiction

This forgotten short film got a certain notoriety at the 1991's Oscars due to its nomination in the Best Short category, showing that the Academy members were following the new developments of South Africa in the previous year, after decades under the brutal and racist Apartheid regime.

The film and the nomination served the point of remembering audiences about a dark period in South Africa history, and it's a history that shouldn't be ignored, despite their movements of building a new nation, greatly formed under the presidency of Nelson Mandela a few years later.

"Senzeni Na?" ("What Have We Done?") follows the two sides of a conflicted situation during those hard times. While returning to visit his family, the black gardener Enos (Sam Phillips) is arrested by white authorities on the suspicious he's a wanted terrorist and he must confess his crimes.

Enos claims innocence at all times, and the major authority (Ivan Berold) from the place doesn't trust him, punishing with him many tortures. As Enos reveals for whom he works, the information takes some time to hit the policeman, and now it's up to his conscience to believe the man's innocence or not.

While based on a short story, there's a strong sense of reality of a similar scenario happening, and that's impossible to ignore. And the very last shot of the film says how dangerous everything is. That's the hard message of it, one that isn't easy to forget, and there'll be some shock on viewers.

A very dramatic and suspenseful story, greatly developed and with many good performances from the cast. Also worth seeing for the work done by cinematographer Wally Pfister ("Inception", "Batman Begins") way before fame, in one of his earliest films. Above all, "Senzeni Na?" is the kind of film that will leave you thinking afterwards about the reality of injustices, intolerance and how systems can break a person and turn them into something they were not or never imagined they could be. 10/10.

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

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