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Yesterday - Leleti Khumalo, Lihle Mvelase, Kenneth Khambula, Darrell Roodt

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Movie propaganda

Love has the power to change our tomorrows.

Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo) lives in Rooihoek, a remote village in South Africa's Zululand. Her everyday life is not easy - there's little money, no modern conveniences, and her husband is away in Johannesburg working as a miner - but she possesses a sunny nature, and takes great joy in her 7-year-old daughter, Beauty (Lihle Mvelase).

The precarious balance of Yesterday's life is suddenly threatened when she is diagnosed with AIDS and must journey afar to understand and confront her illness. Yesterday's primary driving force is Beauty, who is a year away from starting school. Yesterday never had the chance to go to school and she sets her sights on a single goal: to be with Beauty on her first day of class, along with all the other proud mothers...

Set against the awesome, harsh landscapes of South Africa, Yesterday is an eloquent, unsentimental film that quietly builds an overwhelming emotional force. The sure hand of writer/director Darrell James Roodt (Cry, the beloved country, Sarafina!) makes the exotic world of the story both authentic and compelling, and the film resonates from the heartbreakingly beautiful face of lead actress Leleti Khumalo (who played Sarafina at 18).

The first international film ever made in the Zulu language, Yesterday is a story of courage, compassion and hope, set in contemporary South Africa, ten years after the arrival of democracy.