MALIK BENDJELLOUL

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB.  Sweden/United Kingdom, 2012.  Red Box Films, Passion Pictures, Canfield Pictures, The Documentary Company, Hysteria Film, Saperi Film, Sveriges Television, YLE Co-Productions. Screenplay by Malik Bendjelloul, based on the article Sugar and The Sugar Man by Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Looking For Jesus by Craig Bartholomew Strydom.  Cinematography by Camilla Skagerstrom.  Produced by Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn.  Film Editing by Malik Bendjelloul.  Academy Awards 2012.  National Board of Review Awards 2012. National Society of Film Critics Awards 2012.  North Carolina Film Critics Awards 2012.  Phoenix Film Critics Awards 2012.  Washington Film Critics Awards 2012.  

A little known folk singer from the early seventies named Rodriguez barely sold copies of his two albums in America but, in South Africa, he’s a legend.  Music enthusiasts have been playing his gorgeous combination of soulful rhythms and politically conscious lyrics for decades, as fascinated with his music as they are by the myths surrounding his demise.  The stories of his death include suicide on stage by various methods, but what will Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Strydom discover on their journey to find out the truth?  That’s for you to enjoy learning in this emotionally uplifting, constantly entertaining documentary whose information is punctured beautifully by inclusions of the subject’s superb tunes.