Malunde

Director: Stefanie Sycholt
2002

South Africa, post-apartheid: WONDERBOY, a wiry 11-year-old, is trying to survive on the streets of crime-ridden Johannesburg. KOBUS, a former soldier of the apartheid army, can't forget the "good old days" when he was "somebody" - a man honoured for his bravery. Now he's hoping for something to make life worth it again. KOBUS's takes on a job as a travelling delivery man. His pick-up loaded to the brim with tins of RAINBOW WAX - to shine up the nation's furniture, KOBUS meets up with WONDERBOY at a traffic intersection, where the boy eagerly cleans the car's windscreen, hoping for some change. Gangster STIX arrives on the scene, waving a gun - he wants to kill Wonderboy. The boy has only one chance: to leap into KOBUS's car, urging him to drive like hell because he is about to be "car-jacked". KOBUS buys it and they race off, shaking the gunmen off their tail. KOBUS wants to get rid of the "little gangster" as soon as he can. But he needs someone to guard the car - and he is not much of a salesman. WONDERBOY uses all his street-wise skills to make RAINBOW WAX big business! And so begins a journey in which they move from mutual antagonism and suspicion, even hatred, to friendship, in which they come to terms with a troubled past and create an unexpected future.