E LOLLIPOP
South Africa, 1970, 95 minutes, Colour.
Jose Ferrer, Karen Valentine, Muntu Ben, Louis Ndebele, Norman Knox.
Directed by Ashley Lazarus.
E Lollipop is a popular film clearly designed for younger children and for family audiences. It combines African and U.S. locations, harmony between black and white, friendship and the giving of life for a friend, a Catholic atmosphere and a conflict with Protestants. While the sentiment and humour will appeal to children, adults with them could enjoy it too.
1. How enjoyable was this film, its humane impact? For what audience was it made? The focus of the title, the lollipop during the credits, at the end? The indication of the themes of race and friendship?
2. The importance of the African settings and their visual beauty, way of life? The contrast with the New York settings? The picturing of two worlds? How much did the film contrast the African way of life with the American? The detail in the two countries? The children as seen in the environment of both? Carol- Ann, the American, trying to adapt to African ways? What comment did the film make about both ways of life?
3. How interesting was the picture of Africa? The primitive aspects, the witch-doctor, the Catholic Mission and its work in education and health? The terrain, animals, primitive customs, adaptations to modern times?
4. The opening of the film and audience expectations? The mother and orphan? The Mission? How well did the film work on the audience's emotions and feelings? The right amount of sentiment? Did it veer into sentimentality?
5. The picture of the two boys growing up. The nature of the bonds between them, their pranks, the study, Sugarball (the emotional impact of a dog in this kind of film?).
6. The boys seen in the mission, their effect? Sister's decision to send Yani away? The way the Mission was run? The role of Sister and her teaching? Father and his organisation of the mission? His training of Yani?
7. Visualizing of the accident? Its impact and the tyre rolling so far? Anticipation by the witch-doctor? The drama of the New York flight and army help? Tsepo and his loneliness?
8. Tsepo and his helping Yani? The attractiveness of the two boys' personalities? Tsepo's death? The impact of the funeral?
9. The character of Carol- Ann? Her American earnestness? Her speech about pills? Her learning from the witch-doctor? Her growing concern and interest? What did she learn?
10. The witch-doctor and his role in the village? Picturing of the ordinary people of the village - Cash and his wife, the crooks and the spectacular fight etc.?
11. The picturing of the work of the Mission and the film's attitude towards this?
12. The importance of the New York sequence? The hugeness of America compared with Africa, seeing it all through Tsepo's eyes? The joy of the plane, the meal, the arrival, his being lost, Harlem, wandering around New York, being helped by the kind man? The feeling of being lost and the differences in culture?
13. The Christian impact of the film? The reality of the religious setting? Catholics with Father and Sister? The Protestantism of the grandmother and the Minister? Yani's future? The influence of Tsepo on his life?
14. How real a film was this in its exploration of human lives and values?
