The Swenkas

The Swenkas are a group of Zulu men in South Africa who participate in a beauty contest every Saturday night in a bare basement called The Hall. They exchange their overalls for expensive custom suits and try to impress the judge with sultry steps and graceful arm gestures. The winner takes home a cow on special occasions, like Christmas. It is a close-knit set of men that considers respect, tidiness and virtue of paramount importance. The group has to restructure when after their leader’s demise, they have to find a new chief. The documentary is divided into four chapters that show how the deceased leader’s son, 31-year-old Sabelo, is gradually being prepared to follow in his father’s footsteps. THE SWENKAS is the second part of the trilogy ‘Faith, Hope & Love’, which was preceded by JERUSALEM MY LOVE. A striking feature is the fictional element that Danish director Jeppe Rønde adds to THE SWENKAS; He introduces an elderly Zulu man, a vagabond, who comments on the events by incorporating them in an exciting story, similar to the way in which the Coen brothers introduced their feature film THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Halfway through the film, this narrator meets the Swenkas in the flesh: fact meets fiction.