PALJAS World Cinema

In an unusual mix of realism and whimsy,
this masterful South African drama takes
an inspired approach to the question of
prejudice in small town communities. The
once-normal McDonald family is now
isolated and nine-year-old Willem has
stopped talking. When a circus train full
of animals is left behind at the town
railway station, the McDonald’s lives
change as Willem begins a secret
friendship with a clown who has stayed
behind.
PAUAS takes its title from the word for
“magic,” in the sense of making things
right. It is this rough allegory for the state
of South Africa as a country that makes
this poetic movie (the country’s
submission for last year’s foreign film
Oscar) not only prescient, but humane.
Print Source:
Distant Horizon