kagablog

It is a well accepted fact that the world is in need of transformation. What it desperately needs right now is a collective paradigm shift in consciousness spearheaded by an investigation into the state of the male ego. SMS Sugar Man has swept into this arena with a deft and insightful drama, constantly dissolving the barriers of filmography yet paying respectful homage to film noir.

The pressure on families/people to present a happy and united front during the Xmas season, creates tensions that result in the crumbling facade of a delicately held sense of adequacy, particularly of the male psyche. This in turn has repercussions which manifests as a compulsive need to spend money (the fact) to buy happiness (an illusion). Just look at the amount of debt incurred following the season of good cheer.

“Christmas Eve, the most depressing night of the year” bemoans Sugar Man.

This sense of dissatisfaction is strongly informed by a misplaced confidence in the invincibility of the masculine psyche. Sugar Mans claim that ‘money is the glue that binds them’ when referring to his relationship with his ‘Sugars’ is shown to have little staying power. The atmosphere of Xmas thus intensifies underlying insecurities and becomes a dynamic metaphor within which SMS Sugar Man has been presented and where men divert their insecurity in search of sexual gratification.

It no secret that there are strange and illusive patterns that govern human behaviour. The contradiction is that society (and religion) underplay this psychological dynamic.

The repeated image of the arrow-pointer-like lit Xmas tree on the dial of the cellphone in SMS Sugar Man evokes a compass gauge and becomes a vital link in this detective tale investigating the truth of Sugar Mans relationship with SELENE, Grace and Anna. His emotional susceptibility forces him to get to grips with the root cause of his unease - his eroding sense of self:

“Who are you, Sugar Man?” queries Grace with a gun held to his temple.

Sugar Man is not having an identity crisis of his sexuality. What he is having is an existentialist crisis which questions what sort of a male he is, when having to face his emotional liability. This role as the detached male in control has become such a silly notion in a contemporary context and stands in strict contrast to the macho male so overwhelmingly evident in American and many British films and simply serves to entrench negative male stereotypes.

It is here that Kaganof as poet/artist takes precedence: it is impossible for his sensibility to remain oblivious to the overpowering existential evidence of the power of the feminine principal - the Anima - which ‘forces’ him to investigate the Animus:

“Who is the father? Who is the father?”.

Enter the Wallets, each of whom are locked into a mindset which clearly represents varying forms of male dis-ease. These are the males who are determined to do just what Xmas demands of them: buy their satisfaction. The irony of the collective loss of identity in referring to the males as ‘Wallets’ is but one of the alienating insights that Kaganof pursues in SMS Sugar Man.

The Wallets are dissociated from themselves. Each comes to represent an archetypal (core) scenario of the negative male, each of which has ramifications covering a large spectrum of human relationships.

Wallet no. 1 - the father son relationship. Clearly the father and son are not on the same planet. The father thinks he knows what the son wants and what will satisfy him; the son has other plans. If the father is like this with his son, then what kind of a husband is he? How can he know what his wife wants?

“The son shall inherit the sins of the father.” says Sugar Man as a way of making polite conversation while the scenario is being played out upstairs.

What is also pertinent (in a South African context) is that the youth (the young black man) is part of a first generation of having free and fair access to education. There are huge divisions emerging between ‘traditional values’ and ‘education’.

Wallet no. 2 - mistaking sex for love. “You don’t even know my real name.” says SELENE in response to her consorts belief that they are in a relationship. This Wallet is one of her regular clients. It is not her realm to question the fact that he is married. The marriage has finally broken down and she is now being expected to fulfill a role that is quite clearly unrealistic. She stands her ground.

Wallet no. 3 - mistaking colour for superiority. He has hired a ‘white bitch’ (Grace) which gives him a sense of superiority. He is strangely not interested in consummating his escorts come-on. He gets off on trying to intimidate her, and she is having none of it. He obviously has issues of inadequacy linked to race. During apartheid this was happening in reverse where the demand for sexual gratification represented a more complete disassociation of the overriding corrupt value system and the relationship to the ‘self’: sexual schizophrenia.

Wallet no. 4 - linking religion and sex: guilt. The man/priest has to objectify the woman (the sizing up) sprouting religious fervour in his ‘transgression’. His struggle to assuage his guilt is revealed as yet another trap of self alienation. The misinterpretation of religion has lead to numerous cases of repressed expression of sexual diversion and is often at the core of many perversions. South Africa has one of the highest divorce rates in the world.

Wallet no. 5 - the immature male hung-up on his mother. He hires SELENE to play games with him where it becomes evident that his emotional immaturity has stunted the growth of his sexuality. He has never had the courage to break the maternal bond which has created in him a confusion of his sexual identity. Arguably this may be one of the most controversial portrayals of a Wallet, yet no less valid. Homosexuality and identity are strong vexing social dynamics which puzzles many in our population which is largely homophobic.

The ominous and foreboding atmosphere within which the Sugars encounter the Wallets reflects the vulnerability of the women entering the male dominated arena. This gives insight into the courage needed in the implementation of their role.

And yet it is this very vulnerability that enables our ladies of the night to develop their sense of power and superiority. Their power rests in the fact that they are NOT disassociated from themselves and as such are quite clearly far more evolved than their masculine counterparts. It is also this fact that creates the fulcrum upon which Sugar Man is able to bounce his dissolution, for if both players in this dynamic are NOT true to themselves, there cannot be resolution. It is thus that this tale is an extremely upbeat one which demonstrates faith in the power of transformation.

It is important to bear in mind that Kaganof represents the POETIC perception where a dissociation of the self represents a CRIME (sin) against humanity. This is the crime at the centre of our planetary woes, of our collective sicknesses/diseases, our breakdown in relationships, our inability to communicate at a most vital, yet simple, level.

The fact that Kaganof has chosen to use black men to represent most of the Wallets is an extremely complex and challenging move at this juncture in South Africa’s transition:

It challenges White/Indian/Coloured South Africans alienated view of black men because men (regardless of race) would immediately identify with the various male roles. It may be shocking to some but the fact remains that many South Africans find it difficult to believe that black people have the same emotions, needs and wants as they.

It challenges racist views of the interconnectivity of black and white people: apart from Wallet no. 3 (as outlined above) the relationships are cosmopolitan and unpatronising. South Africans are still emerging from an apartheid culture that saw black people as servants, not as human beings.

Apartheid structures were thus that cultures were kept ill-informed of each other. This has created huge gaps in an ability to understand each other and still gives rise (15 years later) to unrealistic expectations and an inability to see each others ‘humanity’. The huge reservoir of racism has not been adequately addressed in the ‘new’ South Africa.

This has been my fourth analysis of this film and yet there is still so much in it! It is thus that SMS Sugar Man becomes the most important film to have emerged in South Africa to date.

this article first appeared on helgé’s website