Genre: Feature Documentary
Directed by Riaan Hendricks, Young Lion Films
Produced by Neil Brandt
Status: In Development with the assistance a Puma BritDoc creative catalyst award
“Can ordinary unarmed citizens tame an unforgiving beast in a world where evil presides?”
More than 3000 prisoners are released back into society every month.
Their criminal record denies them the opportunity of finding meaningful
employment, thus further reducing chances for rehabilitation.
Many become the bone and marrow of the illicit drug trade, the main
source of income for gangs and the root from where most other illegal
and violent crime stem.
The only legal way for ordinary citizens to fight these crimes, is by
volunteering in Neighborhood Watch structures regulated by the the
South African Police Service.
Over the last few years a number of neighborhood watch volunteers
have been killed during retaliation attacks.
With every violent confrontation, tension within the communities escalates.
This film explores the stark contrasting realities of a communties’ struggle
againts crime and the life choices of previously convicted prisoners
surviving in the criminal underworld.
Background
Vigilante justice is South Africas’ way of dealing with criminals and suspected offenders.
In pursuit of social justice, alternative legal community structures has been developed to enable ordinary unarmed voluntary citizens to confront criminal and illegal activities affecting theircommunity.
But over the years, a number of volunteers has been killed in retaliation attacks.
The volunteers are ordinary people, teachers, hard laborers, mothers, wife’s, some very old and others very young. When they join, they unawarely enter a world where evil yields no forgiveness. A world regulated by conflicting forces competing for the illicit drug trade amongst the densely populated poor, unemployed and working class communities. Where every mandrax tablet or packet of crystal meth sold, has a trail of violence, blood and body bags following behind it. And the path ahead is a continues rampant disfunctionalization of society under the hands of those desperate to use it.
The abuse is not a public affair, but the irritance thereof manifests in the constant house burglaries, thefts and violent crimes that plagues the citizens. And that’s what gets them to volunteer and join to cleanse their communities.
In the process, their frustrations are sometimes accidentally expressed in violent street battles with the gangs. Every violent confrontation yields more and more tension in the communities.
This film arms civilians with insight into a world that they automatically become a part of when they find themselves joining a local neighborhood watch. It enables them to make better strategic choices, and develop more affective community safety programs and methods for fighting the social illness plaguing their daily lives.
To do that, the film journeys into the Devils Lair during a time of a gang turf war. From there, we explore the thinking of the men(both free and in bondage) who influences the conflicting forces that regulates the illegal drug market in the Western Cape.
Giving a brushstroke of their operation methods, their foot soldiers, commanders, commissars and generals who setup and manage a violent landscape of drug labs, peddlers and dealers.