Arts

Film: Duma

Duma is a South African film about a boy returning his pet cheetah to the wild.

That's it. Or at least, that's what it should be.

The script writers would have you believe it's a gentle film of awakening and maturing, of loss and compassion, of home and the heart. They might pitch it as a buddy flick, a nature film, a mini-thriller, a tear-jerker or a promo for the South Africa tourist board.

That's the problem.

The film just doesn't know what it really wants to be when it grows up. So instead it meanders along, settling on nothing in particular. It just didn't do it for me. Even the stunning setting was somehow lost.

Still, at least it's not Madagascar.