SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN | Sugar Man | dir. Malik Bendjelloul | SE, GB | 2012 | 86 min
prod|pro John Battsek, Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn scen|wr Malik Bendjelloul zdj|ph Camilla Skagerström muz|mus Sixto Rodriguez mon|ed Malik Bendjelloul ob|cast Sixto Rodriguez, Eva Rodriguez, Stephen Sugar Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore, Willem Möller dys|dis Gutek Film
This debut by Malik Bendjelloul is an interesting film for several reasons. It is a story about the mechanism of censorship, which – through a policy of stigmatism and forbidding certain cultural products – unwittingly contributes to the development of an underground (dealings like these allow the film’s protagonist, Sixto Rodriguez, to become a star in South Africa). It is also the story of a talented musician’s broken career – when he cannot break into the market, he abandons the guitar and works in demolition to support his family. Finally, it is cinema that offers a soothing ending, featuring Rodrigeuz’s concerts in South Africa for thousands of fans (which he never knew he had!), which communicates genuine emotion – in these moments Bendjelloul’s film is at its best. Searching for Sugar Man has won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
MALIK BENDJELLOUL (1977-2014)
Malik Bendjelloul was born in 1977 in Ystad, Sweden. As a child, he appeared in the TV series Ebba och Didrik. He is a graduate of Journalism and Television Production from Linnaeus University in Kalmar. Bendjelloul has filmed several few musical documentaries for the Swedish television station STV and also worked for the station as a reporter for the programme Kobra, thanks to which he was able to see the world. During one of his numerous trips, while in South Africa, he heard the story of Sixto Rodriguez, which became the seed for the idea behind the film „Sugar Man”.
AWARDS
2012 IFF Sundance – Audience Award, Special Jury Prize
2012 IFF Athens – Best Documentary
2012 IFF Moscow – Best Documentary
2013 BAFTA AWARD – Best Documentary
2013 OSCAR – Best Documentary
2013 IFF Göteborg – Audience Award
2013 FAF TWO RIVERSIDES Kazimierz Dolny, Janowiec – Audience Award
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