Tengers Michael Rix South Africa 2007
A claymation animation about gun crime and national identity? Michael Rix’s personal project Tengers is nothing but ambitious, yet when South Africa is summarised for international audiences by the City of God inflected Tsotsi, that goes the popular audience route of admitting that ‘yes’ there are problems but if one thug can overcome his demons, can’t everybody else, maybe there is room for something a little more realistic. Thirteen-plus years after the demise of apartheid, the Rainbow Nation is struggling to define itself. Perhaps Tengers may be the key.
Conceived as a new type of cartoon, but with a purpose, Tengers are rough hewn cousins of Aardman’s work. Derived from the word for the province of Gautenger (formerly part of the Transvaal province), Rix has stated his intent here and the nearest parallels might be with the attempt UNICEF tried a few years ago to explain the horrors of war using the Smurfs. That short cartoon shockingly showed the previously happy blue gnomes reeling from an aerial bombardment. To say it was harrowing is an understatement. Loosely connected to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who frequently make political and societal commentary with their signature show and took a wholesale foray on US foreign policy with Team America, World Police, Tengers is firmly on the offensive using seemingly innocent cartoons to make a deeply affecting point.
Tengers has no need of such shock value as the reality itself is too much to take. All the violence that occurs just happens and the characters somehow make their lives fit around it. The ease with which the Johannesburg characters die suggests that any film attempting to address these issues would be at pains to capture the feeling of life going on despite the continual casual violence. A live action version of the film would either be forced into sentimentality or face accusations of exploitation. For Marius, a Jo’burg cop and friend of the protagonist Rob, Tengers makes it perfectly plain why such a character might have such problems defending the peace for a pittance.
Rix further makes comment about how it might feel to be white in the new South Africa as Rob dons black paint to give himself a better chance at an interview. Anathema to current British ideas of equal opportunities the throwaway joke speaks volumes about how the perception of such societal niceties come across in a country with racial groups not minorities.
Defended by being a cartoon Tengers can make the points it does with a degree of immunity, it is after all only a cartoon. Isn’t it?
