movie : searching for sugar man

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English 101
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Movie review: Searching for Sugarman by Malik Bendejlloul
Searching for Sugarman is a well spun and mysterious documentary directed by Malik Bendejlloul that became a major hit when it came out in late July 2012. Despite experiencing harsh financial times during the shooting and production stages, it’s a film that still made it to big screen rating due to the brilliance of how it was spun. The movie takes a biographical nature since the narrative that dominates the set is the story of the man Rodriguez and his musical influence on the people who listened to it.
This documentary is an investigative type that tries to explain the destiny of a musician whose music was accepted even without him being well known. It also takes the form of a biography as told through the eyes and the perception of the people who were inspired by the music of a man whose career was at first considered a failure but later on despite the odds; rose to fame to the point of having toured in Australia. But the main atmosphere of the entire film is tied to the mystery. Bendejlloul uses the mystery around the narrative to capture his audience, and that’s the bright silver lining of the whole film.
It begins its setting from South Africa where his music was embraced even though knowledge about the image and character of the musician was very ill-known. It’s the story of a man whose music was rejected in his homeland of America but was embraced with passionate and almost crazed fanaticism in a relatively distant and isolated land during the time it was gripped in the debilitating clutches of apartheid.

It was during these times when communication with the outside world was highly prohibited by the regime that supported apartheid when the story of the musician and the man Rodriguez became a powerful social symbol through the beauty and intensity of his music.
It’s an enigmatic narrative since those who are interviewed and also through the tales of Mr. Coffey and Mr. Theodore serve only to embellish the mystery surrounding Rodriguez’s life and music career. However, the documentary doesn’t ring true to the title and the expected flow of any documentary of its type. It defies the general norm and instead of telling the story of the journey to finding Rodriguez. It delves into the mystery of how his music so widely loved by fans who knew so little of the man behind the music. Occasionally the storyline almost tips over into the territory of appraising the effect Rodriguez’s music had on the lives of those who listened to him, and how despite the massive undertow of apartheid the music served as a rallying point for many. It mystifies the way the music affected the fans in a nation isolated from the outside world and struggling through social minefields of a divisive nature. Besides, it serves to show the powerful effect that music can have even without the accompaniment of the image of the musician behind the lyrics and the beats. The same is manifested by the passion shown by a fan of Rodriguez’s music called Stephen Segerman, he fell in love with the music, and that inspired him to make a call for an investigation into the life and travels of “the sugar man” which in turn also inspired the theme for the documentary.
In precise, the story of the “Search for the Sugar man” is a tale that only attempts at searching for the man behind the excellent music. However, at the end of the day it doesn’t whittle down the search into the cold and factual analysis of what happened to the sugar man, but it tells a story of a man endowed with legendary talent. Underappreciated but ambitious still, it tells the story of a man who inspired an entire generation facing tough times politically, socially and even economically. Bendejlloul may have started the journey as a search for the sugar man, but he ended up finding far more than the man behind the music.