In a theatrical landscape increasingly sympathetic to the documentary, We Are Together is still something truly special. A moving portrait of a group of South African AIDS orphans by first-time director Paul Taylor, the film has won an audience award in every country in which it has staged a festival premiere.
It focuses on a shy, charismatic 12-year-old girl called Slindile Moya, who lives in an orphanage. Singing, we learn, is a huge part of life there. When Slindile’s family sing together to remind themselves of their parents, even her 24-year-old brother Sifiso, who’s dying of the same disease, manages to whisper along with the words: ‘We are together, we are family’. Slindile is also the star soloist in the orphanage’s talented choir, and there’s a plan afoot to have them record a CD and go on tour to raise funds.
Needless to say, there are moments of unbearable poignancy and just as heartbreaking beauty as the horrors of the AIDS pandemic are juxtaposed with scenes of kids at the orphanage laughing, mucking about and performing their songs. The music is central as both a source and expression of joy, and it would be a stony-hearted viewer that wasn’t blinking back tears at some point.
