Yesterday is the first international feature film ever shot in the Zulu language, and is the first South African film to receive an Oscar® nomination (in the category of Best Foreign Language Film). Equally important, Yesterday was made with the support of Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, marking an important new commitment by Mandela (and South Africa) to attempt to erase the long- standing stigma of AIDS in a country that has been ravaged by it, primarily from lack of knowledge about the disease.
Set against the awesome, harsh landscapes of South Africa, Yesterday is an eloquent, unsentimental film that quietly builds an overwhelming emotional force. The film's title protagonist is a 30-year-old mother who lives in Rooihoek, a remote village in South Africa's Zululand. Yesterday's life is not easy; there's little money, no modern conveniences, and her husband is away in Johannesburg working as a miner. But she possesses a sunny nature, and takes great joy in her seven-year-old daughter Beauty (Lihle Mvelase). The precarious balance of Yesterday's life is threatened when she is diagnosed with AIDS, and must journey afar to learn about and confront her illness. Yesterday's primary driving force for survival is her daughter, who is a year away from starting school. Yesterday herself never had the chance to go to school, and as she faces her affliction she sets her sights on a single goal: to be with Beauty on her first day of class, along with all the other proud mothers of Rooihoek.
