Wheels & Deals

My review was written in April 1993 after a Lincoln Center screening.

A rough-edged but hard-hitting feature about modern Soweto, "Wheels and Deals" reps a talented new German-trained director-cameraman from South Africa, Michael Hammon.

Backed by his Berlin film school, Deutsch Film und-Fersehakademie, the feature contains both English and local dialect dialogue but is subtitled only in German. Since even the English is heavily accented and lapses into patois, the film has some scenes that are impenetrable for American audiences.

Styled as a film noir with chiaroscuro photography by Hammon, pic depicts the downward spiral of handsome, ambitious B. T. (legit actor Sello Ke Maake-Ncube), who befriends a beautiful lawyer from America, Alsina (Kimberleigh Stark).

B. T. 's involvement with union leader Chippa (Ramolao Makhene) is at their factory, but soon he slides into a life of stealing autos. After filing off the serial number and giving it a new paint job, he even presents one of the hot vehicles to Alsina as a gift, leading to a falling out with her when she's busted by the police for the forged registration.

Chippa is driving the car when she's busted and he's thrown in jail. B. T.'s decision to turn over a new leaf then gets Chippa sprung, but in the process he becomes more deeply involved with a ruthless (and warring) car theft ring masterminded by black political candidate Shabantu (hissable Dominic Tyawa).

Final reel leads our hero to disaster after he's framed for the killing of a white woman in a car theft (anti-apartheid stickers on her car are pointedly shown before a black henchman shockingly shoots her() and his best friend (Archie Mogorosi) is murdered.

This bleak picture is enlivened by an expressive antihero limned by Maake-Ncube in the showy central role and the beauty of co-star Stark. Tyawa is a stock villain, recalling those in American blaxploitation films.

Hammon's lensing is dramatic ande the film is tightly edited.