Shadow and Act Exclusive: Ahead of its theatrical release in the United States, we have an exclusive new trailer for Number 37, the Hitchcockian thriller from South African filmmaker Nosipho Dumisa. The film screened at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year.
Int this gritty homage to perennial Alfred Hitchcock favorite Rear Window, Number 37 points a lens on the residents of a block of apartments in the down-and-out Cape Flats neighborhood–which, with its petty thugs, crooked cops, violent loan sharks and troubled pastors, soon reveals itself to be a very different place from Rear Window’s Greenwich Village of 1954.
Synopsis: Set in a rough section of Cape Town, Number 37 follows Randal Hendricks, a small-time crook who becomes wheelchair-bound in a drug deal gone wrong and his hard-working girlfriend Pam Ismael. To distract Randal during his homebound days of limited mobility, Pam gives him a pair of binoculars. While idly surveying his block, he accidentally witnesses a dirty cop being executed by his gangster neighbor, Lawyer. With a loan shark breathing down his neck, Randal decides to blackmail Lawyer and enlists the help of both his girlfriend and his friend, Warren. When the plan goes horribly awry, Randal’s options get more and more restricted—and not even local detective Gail February, investigating the death of her partner, may be able to help him.
On being a young black woman filmmaker, Dumisa told Shadow and Act earlier this year: “I was essentially an outsider to the world being portrayed,” she stressed. “Perhaps had I been making a romantic comedy or drama some people would not have struggled with my role as much. People assumed that one of my male partners would be directing the film, despite the fact that I had written the script, co-directed the short film, and pitched the treatment that they all loved. Even directing on set was a challenge. I worked with one or two crew members who struggled with my authority and felt no shame in repeatedly comparing me to my male counterparts. I’m pretty tough though, and I believed in my vision wholeheartedly. It also helped tremendously that my producers and business partners always had my back. My Director of Photography and other crew whom I’ve worked with for years were incredible! As a woman in this industry, you have to work a little harder to be viewed as equal — it’s unfortunate.”
Watch the trailer below:
