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The Sunday Mail Magazine
May 21, 2000
By Film Review
Yellow Card tackles one of the most sensitive issues facing young Africans today and does so with humour, compassion and unflinching honesty.
The film tells the story of Tiyane Tsumba, a seventeen-year-old football star in Harare whose life falls apart when he gets his classmate pregnant but falls in love with another girl. It sounds like a soap opera but it plays like something far more substantial.
Writer-director John Riber draws on extensive research with Zimbabwean teenagers to create a story that never feels contrived. The dialogue crackles with authenticity. The situations, while dramatic, are rooted in everyday reality.
Lead actor Leroy Gopal gives a remarkable performance as Tiyane. He has the rare ability to make you sympathise with a character who is behaving selfishly. You understand why he runs from responsibility even as you wish he would face up to it.
The supporting cast is uniformly strong. Ratidzo Mambo brings quiet dignity to the role of Linda, while Kasamba Mkumba gives Juliet a spirited independence that makes you understand why Tiyane falls for her.
The film's climax, when Tiyane is literally left holding the baby, is both comical and profoundly moving. It is the moment when a boy becomes a man, and Gopal plays it beautifully.
Yellow Card is a triumph of intelligent, engaging filmmaking. It entertains, it informs, and it might just save lives.
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