The majority of the South African public will never know what a feature film made on cellphones will look like on the big screen, as Ster-Kinekor has shelved plans to release SMS Sugarman theatrically. Instead director Aryan Kaganof (formerly Ian Kerkhof) has reclaimed the project and is releasing it online and via DVD.

Shot on eight Sony Ericsson W900i cell phones with built-in cameras, SMS Sugarman tells the story of a pimp and three prostitutes on Christmas Eve. This is more layered than straight sexploitation though. The wallets are all black; the prostitutes are all white, a nice play on the changing power structures within modern day South Africa. One client wants to kiss rather than make love; another has fallen in love with one of the prostitutes; the focus is on the relationships created and the distances that remain rather than just the tits and ass.

“We watched it on a big 35mm screen and it was amazing,” says DOP Eran Tahor, but sadly we’ll have to take his word for it. The cellphone footage held up remarkably well on my television screen though. It obviously pixellates, but this just makes it feel like an oil painting rather than a photograph. As Eran explains, “I look at the phone now in a different way. I see it now as a brush rather than an image capturing device, something between van Gogh and pointillism, with Vettriano’s strong, warm colours. You see detail; you see skin tones; you see colours. You have two or three stops latitude, so the highlights burn and the darks pretty much get black. It’s a very crushed look but it’s a very beautiful, painterly look that I didn’t expect.”

This works in the cityscapes and textures, but is frustrating with the faces, where eye sockets often become black holes that cheat you of emotion. That said, the film features uniformly excellent, understated performances from the cast, which is led by Aryan himself, Leigh Graves and American Deja Bernhardt. Familiar industry faces like Jerry Mofokeng, Norman Maake, Ryan Fortune and John Matshikiza (RIP) all appear in cameos.

The film is one of the most sexually explicit to come out of our largely conservative industry. “Kaganof’s been testing us,” says Deja, who put herself through film school by working as a stripper. “Very much testing our limits sexually, intimately, about how far we’ll go. For me, obviously, I’ve gone pretty far but it’s amazing. It’s a very sexy film but it’s also very intimate, the scenes between me and Leigh especially. We’ve almost created them ourselves, so we’re very comfortable with them. We shot a very sexy lovemaking scene between Leigh and myself in the most skanky bathroom you can imagine. Because the cameras we’re shooting with are so close and so small, it doesn’t feel like you have this big camera in your face. It’s almost like you’re just in the moment and you’re just there in your character, Selene with Grace. It’s a sexy way to shoot.”

“The actors all seemed to really enjoy what they were doing,” Aryan says of the sex scenes. “I presume they all studied the method system.” Eran says he fell in love with how fast he could move using the cellphones. “By walking in and using four or five cellphones, we could get a scene in almost one take.”

Leigh agrees, “The moment you feel inspired, the camera is there.” A film shot on cellphones was always going to be experimental, especially when directed by Aryan. We have splitscreens, with see actors using cameras in shot while their footage is streamed in the frame next to it; cameras tilt upside down; and scenes are repeated, among other things. “I don’t know anything about conventional filmmaking techniques; I’ve never made a conventional film,” Aryan says. “The repetitions work to create a dreamlike disorientation that I really love.” This will all either irritate you or inspire you, depending on your taste. If you’re fond of three-act structures with happy endings, you should probably avoid this. As

Aryan told The Weekender, “The feel-good movie genre is one I have always viewed with a certain malevolent distaste. This film introduces South African audiences to the feel-bad movie, a genre of my own that I have fi nely honed and shaped over the past 20 years.”

Since SMS Sugarman, Aryan has made two documentaries: Sally in Winterland, which he shot on a Nokia N95 mobile phone, and Drom Film Repetition, which he shot on a combination of HDV and mobile phone footage. “I am interesting in exploring the impact that the mobile medium has on storytelling, on how narratives are shaped and reiterated,” he says. “I have now integrated my Nokia N95 into my everyday filming practice and often mix it up with HDV footage.”

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Kevin Kriedemann