Cape Town - The Writer and director of the Netflix drama, Sodium Day wants South Africa to pay more attention to the education system.
UK-born Riaz Solker, an educator and self-taught filmmaker said he has been surprised at the amount of support the teen drama has received since it’s premier on the streaming platform, which is currently one of the top ten streams in the country.
Set at a typical high school in Cape Town, Sodium Day is a social commentary on the issues within the education system and the challenges faced by learners and teachers alike.
Solker, who has been teaching for 15 years said, “The culture and the system, in my experience, the greater proportion of schools that are in government control are drawing on young people who are not necessarily from financially-privileged areas.
“They are stonewalled and it’s difficult to come from a home environment that isn’t necessarily conducive for you to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you,” Solker said
As an independent film, Solker tried for six years to get the exposure he needed to get the film to audiences who enjoy high entertainment value.
He said the film had been pirated and uploaded on social media platforms to the point where he felt “disrespected”, however, this came with an upside as more people noticed the work.
He said, “It entered the landscape with no press and it made huge losses for me, so up until a month ago, I had no idea that the film was going to do anything -- I gave up.
“It had lost me so much money, I was literally in a hole. So the fact that it’s achieving some success is very new for me because it’s been six years of struggle,” Solker said.
The film features young actors - Ashlon Thomas, Marvin Safoor, Amandla Gelani, Amy Li Jiang and others.
Solker says while the film does say a lot about the practicalities of receiving basic education, his “nuanced” execution is a testament to the kind of emotional intelligence deserving of learners who have to struggle just getting to school, let alone learning.
He said expectations of the system ought to be focused on using the kinds of tools learnt in school to find self-sustaining ways of making money.
“These should be enabling tools for somebody to leave school and instantly find work or generate opportunities for making money, that should be the expectation we should have of a system instead the system creates a lot of disenfranchised young people who enter into a work force and they are so unprepared, because the examples that are being set for them is not encouraging or supportive,” he said.
Solker said the film was rejected by Durban International Film Festival but managed to score a spot at the Cape Town International Film Festival before its release at the cinema in May 2022.
Sharing his experience as part of the South African film industry, he said, “Those mechanisms, the way they operate is at a slower pace. Those structures I felt were holding me back because the opportunities I had were opportunities I had to make the films, so I ended up just forging ahead.”
When asked about the message he wanted to send in the making of Sodium Day, Solker said he prefers people watch it before they try to engage him about the work, “I want you to participate in the film and then we can talk.”