COMMENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR - WRITER RAMADAN SULEMAN

THE PAST STILL HAUNTS
All post-war societies are challenged to confront traumas from the repression and violence of the past. Nearly a decade after the inauguration of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the past still continues to haunt South Africa's new political system. Mothers are still mourning, families are still searching for the remains of loved ones, and communities are still divided within themselves and across racial and class lines. ZULU LOVE LETTER follows the daily struggles of female journalist Thandeka, whose sense of hope is still being tested, years after having suffered from horrific crimes under apartheid.

10 YEARS LATER
Many of the vestiges of apartheid have been dismantled, especially in the areas of democracy and governance. When it comes to the economy and social life, apartheid is still very much alive, especially in the form of class and other privileges where whites are still dominant. In terms of the psyche, there are still many scars in all the communities. The traumas of the past are being relived in the continuing racism, violence and extreme disparities that still characterize South Africa today. Unless these implications are dealt with in our narratives, they will continue to reveal themselves in violent and threatening ways.
 
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TRC)
When former President Nelson Mandela's government inaugurated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), many in South Africa across the racial divides were not pleased for different reasons. The process involved people registering to testify and their claims being investigated. The final part would then be the testimony in front of the Commission. The Commission was fraught with problems. Despite their large numbers, the people who finally testified represent a small percentage of the people abused in the past. Perpetrators qualified for indemnity as long as they made what was called "full disclosure". Unfortunately, we had the majority of victims forgiving perpetrators who were not willing, to this day to ask for forgiveness. However, today we can proudly say, whatever the outcome, it was done. What the TRC represented, was the beginning of a transcending/healing process. The outcome for me is that never again will South Africans ever say that "we did not know".
 
FREE AND EDUCATED SINGLE WOMAN
ZULU LOVE LETTER takes place around the city of Johannesburg and its neighboring township of Soweto. There is hope and a cautious excitement in some people and others are very skeptical of the changes around them. The historical moment of transition between the old and the new demands that Thandeka look inward and take stock of her life. Thandeka is typical of many of South Africa's free and educated single women. In the past, her political and career commitments were achieved at the expense of personal and familial responsibilities. The challenge now is how to negotiate between her career as a journalist, her uneasy relationship with her deaf daughter and the strains with her parents because of her inability to make a matrimonial decision.


RAMADAN SULEMAN (director, writer)
Ramadan Suleman directed the award-winning FOOLS, the story of a middle-aged schoolteacher who is confronted by the activist brother of a girl he raped. FOOLS received Locarno's Silver Leopard in 1997. Before directing his second feature, ZULU LOVE LETTER, Suleman directed the first four episodes of the 2002 series "Behind the Badge" for South African TV (SABC).

Born 1955 in Durban, Suleman was one of the founders of Johannesburg's Dhlomo Theater, the first theater in South Africa owned and directed by Black artists. After the theater was shut down by the state in 1984, Suleman spent several years in Paris and London, where he made the short documentaries SEKOUBA (1984) and EZIKHUMBENI (1985) and the short fiction films RAGING WALLS (1988) and THE DEVIL'S CHILDREN (1989). He graduated from the London International Film School in 1990. Suleman has also collaborated on films by Med Hondo and Souleymane Cissé.
 
2004 ZULU LOVE LETTER
1997 FOOLS
 
 
BHEKIZIZWE PETERSON (south-african producer, writer)
Bhekizizwe Peterson wrote and produced both features by director Ramadan Suleman, 2004's ZULU LOVE LETTER and 1997's FOOLS. He also wrote the screenplay for the South African television film, THE CHILDREN AND I (1993). He served as creative consultant on the 2004 documentary BORN INTO STRUGGLE. Peterson is also Associate Professor of African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand and has had several books published, including "Monarchs, Missionaries and African Intellectuals: African Theatre and the Unmaking of Colonial Marginality."