Inja (Dog)

This was a short film i watched in Art of Film. It was about an African child (Thembile) working for a white family in South Africa during and after apartheid. Mainly it is centered around Thembile's relationship with the family dog. In the begining the dog is his only friend, and he loves it. Then the father of the family decides the dog shouldn't like Thembile, and should like himself instead. He puts the dog in a bag and beats it. Then he makes Thembile take it out. The Dog thinks Thembile did the beating. From then on it is hostile to Thembile, and Thembiles life becomes somewhat empty.

This was a great film; I hated it. It created an attachment to a character extremely quickly. The viewer appreciates and admires Thembile's relationship with the dog. It then destroys that relationship just as quickly as it was created. It even fast fowards in time and presents us with one of the saddest situations I've ever seen in film. Apartheid has ended and Thembile's relationship with the white father has gotten somewhat better, but the dog never forgets its beating, and attack Thembile whenever he comes near. When the Father has a heartattack, the dog stands in the way of Thembile giving his boss his medications. We are left with the boss's request for Thembile to kill the dog. In seventeen short minutes this film took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It drew me in to the love between the boy and his dog, the furry at his master for ruining that love, that lamentation over the dogs lasting hate for Thembile, the slight silver lining of justice that the Father's actions should come back and bite him in the ass, and finally deep sympathy for the situation that Thembile is placed in. I almost cried at the end.

Final Rating: 4.5