Outline
I. General Introduction
 II. Social Conditions
 III. Analysis
 IV. Q&A
 V. Conclusion
Summary & Main Argument
Despite experiencing a lot of hardships,
especially after contracting AIDS, Yesterday is
able to sustain herself because she builds a
strong mentality out of her love for her family.
Harriet Hou
PRODUCTION
The Movie - Yesterday
 Released on Sept. 3rd, 2004 in South Africa
 Directed by Darrell Roodt.
 Setting: Rooihoek, Kromdraai, and
Johannesburg in South Africa
 This film is the first commercial featurelength production in Zulu
 Chinese title: “永不遺忘的美麗”
Rooihoek, South Africa
Zulu
 the language of the Zulu people
 South Africa’s 11th official language (in 1994)
 Yesterday is the first full length feature film in
Zulu.
 Why they can speak English and have English
name? Many Zulu people also speak Afrikaans,
English, Portuguese, Shangaan, Sesotho and
others from among South Africa's 11 official
languages.
Echo Chen& Jeff Huang
SOCIAL FACTORS
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
Jeff Huang
Illiteracy
wealth inequality
urban-rural divide
Illiteracy
Literacy Rate
1995
81.8%
2003
86.4%
Source: indexmundi.com
The benefits of literacy
 Government’s developmental
programs
 Poverty reduction
 Women’s empowerment
 HIV and AIDS eradication
 Environmental conservation
 Education as an
enabling right
 To lower birth rate
The World Education Forum
(Dakar, Senegal, April 2000)
 EFA (Education for All) --- To extend the reach of
basic education world-wide and reduce illiteracy
 To reduce illiteracy by 50% by 2015.
 To eliminate gender disparities
 Focusing on girls' education, working children,
children of ethnic minorities…
Results
 The United Nations Children's Fund
 Youth (15-24 years) literacy rate, 2008
male : female = 96 : 98
 Primary school attendance ratio 2009
male : female = 80 : 83
Source: UNICEF
Problems exist
 Teachers struggle to maintain
students motivation levels
 Student awful discipline and
attendance
 The lack of parental involvement
 Principals and teachers are
overwhelmed with departmental
admin.
Wealth inequality
urban-rural divide
Wealth inequality
Perfect equality
Inequality (1996)
Inequality (2009)
Source:
Source:OECD
Global
Factblog
Insight
Wealth inequality
Average
Black
African
Colored
White
Average
Black African
Source: OECD Factblog
Asian
2008
1917
2000
White
Two South Africas
 The highest levels of inequality in the world (UN
Habitat's State of the World's Cities report)
 Over half earned below US$230 per month, and one
in five people had no income.
 After apartheid:
 The rapid urbanization of South Africa's cities
 Movement of black people from rural to urban
areas ➔ A decline in subsistence agriculture
 Urban population 58%, 33% in slums and squatter
camp (2009)
Causes
“Current poverty and income distribution in the context of South
African history” Servaas Van Der Berg, October 2010
 High inequality of wage earnings ➔ wealth gap
 Job creation does little to reduce inequality.
 Low quality of education ➔ be excluded from
the economic mainstream
 “Thus the labor market is at the heart of
inequality, and central to labor market
inequality is the quality of education.”
3 Facts of
AIDS
1. WHAT IS AID/HIVS?
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS
 H: Human
 I: Immune
 V: Virus
 A: Acquired
 I: Immune
 D:
Deficiency
 S: Syndrome
2. HOW IS HIV TRANSMITTED?
 Blood (including
menstrual blood)
 Semen
 Vaginal
secretions
Saliva, tears
sweat,
 Breast
milk feces,
and urine
3. How to prevent?
 practice safe sexual behaviors (condoms)
 get tested and treated for sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV
 avoid injecting drugs, or if you do, always
use new and disposable needles and
syringes
 ensure that any blood or blood products
that you might need are tested for HIV.
Aid myths &
misunderstanding
 TRANSMISSIO
N MYTHS
 MYTHS
ABOUT A
CURE
 MYTHS
ABOUT
MEDICATIONS
Medical Condition
in South Africa
Distribution of health workforce
(per 1000 south African)
Bailey Chen
HARDSHIPS ANALYSIS
Hardship 1
Lack of enough medical resources
Lack of hospitals & medical professionals
Yesterday’s failure to see the doctor for the first
two times. Rooihoek →Kromdraai
e.g. I am sorry. There is nothing I can do (male assistant).
e.g. l told you. lt is best to come early. Before the sun
(a patient).
Lack of hospitals & medical professionals
 The third time…
“We need more than one doctor at this clinic. But there is
not enough money (female doctor).”
 Failure to find a bed for her husband.
There is a waiting list...as long as my arm. Both arms(Nurse).
Hardship 2
Unacceptance by the society
Villagers: Personality
Gossipy: talk about other villagers’ private lives
Superstitious: a sangoma can treat Yesterday
Ignorant: not knowing AIDS is transmitted
through blood
Villagers: Relationship with Yesterday
Before
helpful; have a
wonderful time
chatting with
Yesterday
Villagers: Relationship with Yesterday
After
cold and unfriendly;
Distance
themselves from
Yesterday
Hardship 3
Superstition of the community
The Sangoma
Represents a tradition:
-has curing and soothing powers / gets rid of the evil spirits
e.g. appears in the hospital, outside of Yesterday’s house
Able to foresee the future :
-a villager wins the lotto
Prevalent in the village:
-more accessible than clinics
The Sangoma
Yesterday’s first visit:
-treats Yesterday with the traditional methods →
Yesterday is sick because of the anger inside her.
Outside of Yesterday’s house:
-S:Tell me, is this what causes
your anger?
Y: l am not angry.
The sangoma’s treatment
doesn’t work at all.
Jessie Wang
CHARACTER ANALYSIS I
YESTERDAY & THE FEMALE
TEACHER
Yesterday’s Personality
 Courageous & Strong
--Takes care of her husband
--Builds her own hospital
 Considerate & Friendly
 Gentle
--Peels orange for Beauty
--Comforts her husband
 Firm & persistent
“Until my child goes to school... l'll not die.”
(01:00:46)
Teacher’s Personality
 Considerate
 Friendly
 Knowledgeable
-- Knowledge of diabetes & AIDS
RELATIONSHIP B/T YESTERDAY &
TEACHER
Friendship
Relationship b/t Yesterday &
Teacher
 Yesterday : Help & believe the Teacher
 Help the Teacher
-- Give road directions
-- Introduce the village
Relationship b/t Yesterday &
Teacher
 Believe the Teacher
-- Look after Beauty
-- Tell the Teacher her disease
Relationship b/t Yesterday &
Teacher
 Teacher : Help & care for Yesterday
-- Arrange the Taxi
-- Look after Beauty
-- Teach villager the right concept about AIDS
-- Promise to take care of Beauty 01:24:06)
Cinematography: Long-shots
 The beginning
3
2
Cinematography: Long-shots
 Compare & Contrast: The Beginning & The End
Cinematography:
Foreshadowing
Winni Huang
CHARACTER ANALYSIS II- FAMILY
HUSBAND JOHN & DAUGHTER
BEAUTY
The relationship b/t
Yesterday & Beauty
 Yesterday Considers Beauty as her
hope of tomorrow
 Devotes for Beauty
 The orange scene (16:46)
 Lives for Beauty not for
 Beauty
 Worries about her
mother’s sickness
 Coughing (14:31)
 Yesterday faints(22:18)
 Learns to take
herself
responsibility
 doctor announces her
disease. (40:39)
 Sows the seeds
 Helps building hospital
(1:59:39)
 Stays strong in front of
Beauty
The relationship b/t
Yesterday & John
 Yesterday
 Endures domestic violence




from him
bears with John’s
disloyalty and forgives him
Never resents to John’s
transmitted AIDS to her
Missing yesterday’s sweet
memory (51:23)
Accepts John’s illness and
wrongdoing (59:13)
(1:02:58)
 John
 Detests seeing Yesterday
coming to see him(49:24)
 Reveals his helplessness
(57:11)
 Confesses his wrongdoing
and feels grateful to
Yesterday (1:02:58)
The relationship b/t
John & Beauty
 John
 Beauty
 Expresses his honorable
 Misses John in bedtime
past to Beauty, tries to
retain a potent father
image to Beauty
 Still misses Beauty before
his death (1:21:56)
(51:09)
 The loosened relationship
between daughter and
father
 Cannot sympathize with
John; looks at him in a
detestable manner
(1:18:16)
 The fragile image contrast
to Beauty’s impression of
John
Cinematography- love of
mother
 focus on orange, the peeling movement, and the
gratified facial expression  The love and
devotion of mother
Cinematography-helplessness
 encountering mother’s faintness and fragility
 Using long shot to picture the helplessness
and insignificance of the two.
Cinematography: The change of
the relationship b/w John &
Yesterday
Relate their speechless
and deep connection
because of their illness
and their daughter
Show resentful expression
Reunite their relationship
through confession &
forgiveness
Expose his helplessness and fragility
Tina Chi
SYMBOLS
Name: Yesterday & Beauty
 The elderly’s concept of life <-> Yesterday’s
optimistic attitudes towards life
 Beauty: Yesterday’s
hope
 Still believe beauty
in life
Name: Yesterday & Beauty
 Beauty
his daughter’s name
he was finally relieved
what had happened would
be yesterday (bad would end
at yesterday and begins in a
new day)
Bird: to fly, to be free
 To fly away from the status quo and be free
 Yesterday’s hope: to support what Beauty wants
to do
Pump: social interaction
 Where women gather and discuss gossips
 AIDS isolation
 Changes of color changes of atmosphere
Water: life
 Life can’t go backward, just can go forward
Orange
 Bright, fruitful maternal love toward Beauty
Grass: past happiness,
childhood
Background Music : maskandi
AIDS (Brings fear and death)
Background Music :
maskandiAIDS (brings fear and
death)
Fence: a sense of belonging
Fence: different future from
Yesterday and beauty
Road: journey of life(beginning &
death)
Road: journey of life
 Intersections: opportunities and hope in life
Discussion Questions
 Why do you think the movie is titled
Yesterday?
 Discuss the role of Sangoma in Yesterday.
 Can you relate this movie to other texts we
have covered so far in this course?
 The Sangoma says Yesterday is angry, but
Yesterday responds she is not. What is your
opinion on this and why?
Conclusion
Works Cited
 http://www.kharigude.co.za/index.php/literacyin-south-africa
 http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol2
0no2/202-combating-inequality.html
 http://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers121
.html
 http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/southafrica
_statistics.html
 http://www.kharigude.co.za/index.php/literacyin-south-africa