| Director | Jarryd Coetsee, Mitch Myers |
|---|---|
| Budget | $10 |
In 1950s Sophiatown, South Africa, a man forces his wife to treat her lover's suit as if it were a person, with tragic consequences.
The film opens with a prologue in which Spokes Mashiyane's "Come Back" plays from an old radio in a bedroom. In a montage of shots, a person dresses: a hand removes a suit from a cupboard, the same hand polishes shoes, brushes trousers, fastens cufflinks, buttons up a jacket and finally adjusts a tie.
Philemon, a middle-class lawyer awakens his sleeping wife Matilda, whom he calls Tilly, in their bedroom, with breakfast in bed. He is dressed in a suit and carries a fedora. The married couple lives in Sophiatown, a township of Johannesburg, in the early 1950s, shortly before the apartheid regime forcibly removed non-whites from the area to make way for white resettlement under the Group Areas Act and the Natives Resettlement Act, 1954. She kisses him and adjusts his tie as he tells her that he better go or he will be late for work. She kisses him again for longer, then he leaves the house. Matilda climbs out of bed and walks to the bedroom window, watching Philemon walk away, then she turns back and gazes at the empty, lonely house.
Philemon walks down a busy street as a caption appears on screen saying: Sophiatown, Johannesburg, 1955. At a bus-stop, under a sign that reads: Native Bus Stop, Philemon meets his old friend Mr. Maphikela who appears to be anxious because he drops his briefcase as Philemon attempts to shake his hand. Their bus arrives and the two men board. On the bus, Mr. Maphikela reluctantly informs Philemon that Matilda has been visited by a young man every morning for the last three months. Devastated, Philemon tells Maphikela that he has to go, and he hurries off the bus as Maphikela tells him to keep steady. As Philemon alights from the bus, another passenger boards the bus. The white bus conductor yells at the passenger in colloquial Afrikaans: "Nie-blankes, upstairs!", which means: "Non-whites, upstairs!" because public amenities, like buses, were segregated under apartheid. As the bus pulls off, Maphikela watches Philemon marching past other pedestrians.
In a montage of shots, Matilda pours two glasses of whiskey, flirts and dances with a shirtless young man as Spokes Mashiyane's "Zoo Lake Jive" plays from a gramophone. In the same montage, Philemon marches through the streets of Sophiatown, loosening his tie aggressively and bumping into other pedestrians. The montage ends as Matilda kisses the young man and Philemon reaches the front door of his house. He opens the door, shuts it behind him, puts his briefcase down on the floor, then inhales deeply, gathering himself. Philemon walks deliberately to the bedroom where he discovers Matilda asleep in the arms of her lover.
Philemon's face fills with rage. He notices the lover's suit hanging on the cupboard door. Philemon controls his anger and ambles to the cupboard, searching through it. He pretends as if he has not noticed the lovers in bed, and tells Matilda that he was nearly at work when he realised that he had left his pass at home so he returned to fetch it. While saying so, Philemon drapes the lover's suit over his arm. Matilda and her lover wake with a start. The lover rushes to the window, completely naked, then leaps out of it, fleeing down the street. Philemon treads purposefully to the window, watching the man running away, then locks it. Philemon tells Matilda that he must phone his boss to let him know that he will not come in to work today as his wife is unwell. While Philemon phones his boss, Matilda dresses quickly in her nightgown and waits anxiously on the bed.
Philemon returns and regards the suit. He tells Matilda that he notices that they have a visitor. Philemon commands Matilda to treat the suit with the same hospitality that she would show to a guest: it will share meals with them, it will share their bedroom, it will go for walks with them, etc. If she refuses, he says that he will kill her.
For the first time in his life, Philemon goes to a shebeen (an illegal speakeasy). While Spokes Mashiyane's "Kwela Zulu" plays, the shebeen queen removes alcohol (the sale of which was prohibited to blacks) from below a trap-door in a side-room then brings a bottle to Philemon as he smokes. Philemon stays at the shebeen all day, leaving Matilda alone with her thoughts and fears. When Philemon returns, he finds that Matilda has cleaned and spruced up their dingy home. She even wears a beautiful new dress and has prepared dinner. Unmoved, Philemon scolds his wife: where is their visitor? Matilda retrieves the suit and prepares a plate of food for it. Philemon instructs her how she should place the suit at the table so that it becomes indeed the third person. Matilda is petrified and scurries about as he barks orders. While Philemon eats, Matilda edges towards the window and opens it to get some air. But Philemon walks up and locks it from behind her then orders her to return to the table while he finishes his meal. This is how it should be from now on, Philemon tells her. They wash their plates and cutlery at the kitchen sink in silence, the suit hanging on the wall beside Matilda. Later, in the sitting room, Matilda irons the suit as Philemon smokes ominously behind her.
On a Sunday, Philemon and Matilda walk to church. Matilda is deeply humiliated as she has to carry the suit slung over her shoulder. On the way, the couple walks past a wall on which a slogan has been painted: Ons Dak Nie, Ons Phola Hier, which is Tsotsitaal for We Won't Leave, We Are Staying Here. Philemon and Matilda enter the Anglican Church of Christ the King in Ray Street (which is incidentally the same street in which the writer Can Themba lived at Number 111). Above the altar is a conspicuous statue of a black Jesus. Philemon and Matilda are seated at a pew with the suit over the seat between them.