Name: Lucky Day
Genre: Short
Released: 1999-12-06
Duration: 12 min
Rating: 6.6
Cast: Pule Hlatshwayo, Thulani Nyembe, Ian Roberts

Two South African men go out into the street to wait for work.  One of them is picked up as a group of 7 leaving the other man, Fann.  Soon an offer of an one man job comes up. The job is simple - $40 to simply tell the white farmer the truth when asked certain questions - to say what he thinks. However it's a job that is not all that it seems.

This story reveals itself right up till the end.  Like the hired hand, we don't know what's going on or what's going to happen.  We can only go off what we see and this often takes us in wrong directions and make us assume things.  The actual details of the story I can't spoil but this is quite intriguing.  However it started with a good sense of building tension but actually finished with a bit of an anticlimax.

It is still very good as you don't expect it to go the direction it does - but maybe it could have been edited or directed better to be slightly more dramatic or punchy rather than just coming to an end.  The actors are both very good in their roles and draw you into the story.

Overall this was enjoyable because it was an unknown journey that we take with the main character.  However it's thunder is lost by a final scene that is unnecessary as the emotional payoff had already happened.

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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Every morning Bushin wakes his friend Fana with the greeting that today is their lucky day. They are Black day laborers in South Africa, and that day, both get jobs. Fana's is with a burly White farmer who wants one worker only. The man is odd, with a temper. He asks Fana to set his wage for the day. Before they reach his farm, he stops at a casino. Once at the farm, Fana sees odd things: a dead dog, a living room that's a wreck. The farmer promises Fana the full 40 rand Fana has asked for if Fana will tell him the truth. Fana is wary. His job is to dig a grave, read from the Bible, and answer truthfully a question the rifle-toting farmer asks. Is this Fana's lucky day?

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Lucky Day

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