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Baby Mamas
Director: Stephina Zwane
Starring: Dineo Ranaka, Thembisa Mdoda
Rating: 4/5
New South African comedy drama Baby Mamas was produced, directed and written by women for women. It’s the first Sorele Media film to make it to the cinema – big ups to the ladies.
Baby Mamas is about four women who, as the unmarried mothers of children, are all going through different stages of “baby mama drama”.
I’m not a baby mama, but I’ve spent time with many and seen some of their situations being addressed in the film, so women raising their kids alone will most definitely fall in love and relate to this movie.
Salamina Mosese plays Toli, who’s in a relationship with Tumi (Sthembiso Khoza), the baby’s dad. But things get complicated when she becomes interested in someone else.
The worst thing a single mother can go through is to stress about what her parents are going to say about the pregnancy. That, and having a boyfriend who denies the baby and does not support her throughout the pregnancy. This happens to Chantel (Kay Smith) when she tells Keenan (Donovan Pietersen) she’s pregnant. His reply? “I’m still young and there’s things I want to do. There’s new sneakers coming out.”
Sandy is played by Thembisa Mdoda. She is still in love with her baby’s daddy and has high hopes they will rekindle their love, but he’s engaged to someone else and that’s a tough pill to swallow. She is the type of a single mom who doesn’t want her child spending time with the ex’s partner and she makes sure that she gives them a hard time.
Joy is the bubbly one, crazy and a straight-talker, she is also smart and I could see a little bit of Dineo Ranaka in her. She has an on-and-off relationship with Sizwe, who not only cheats on her but beats her up too.
Even though you can predict what is going to happen next, it’s still a great movie to watch. Above all I love the tight friendship the women have; it’s pure sisterhood.
The movie runs for 93 minutes and viewers will get a sense of what the women who produced the movie think about other women.
The South African film industry is really developing and I for one am happy about that.
