EVERYONE’S CHILD

It takes a village to raise a child, goes the famously appropriated African proverb. But how often have you seen that platitude challenged on home soil? This English-language drama depicts the far-from-common story of a rural clan devastated by AIDS. The mother's death makes four children orphans. The youngest brother and sister are relatively fortunate; an uncle and a village elder see to them. But teens Tamari and Itai are of working age, and must fend for themselves. Itai goes to the big city of Harare, expecting to find a job through another, more sympathetic uncle. But his imagined benefactor has moved to South Africa, leaving Itai with no other option but to fall in with a street gang and their life of petty crime. Meanwhile, pretty Tamari owes more and more to the village shopkeeper. His demand that she repay him with sexual favors only further ostracizes her from the community. With ten million AIDS orphans expected in Africa by the turn of the century, Tsitsi Dangarembga's first feature is a call for compassion on and off the continent, backed by melodies from Zimbabwe's most prominent pop and folk musicians.