Jeppe on a Friday

A Johannesburg neighourhood unites eight people’s ambitions, desires, and struggles to survive over the course of a Friday.

Hours before sunrise, Vusi Zondi is already making his way through Johannesburg’s wealthy suburbs. Some homes have sorted their recycling, other trash bins must be emptied and the plastic and paper are piled on to Vusi’s elaborate trolley. He speeds his cart away down the street, as the morning radio crackles to life and birds begin to chirp overhead. It’s Friday in Jeppestown, and sixteen year-old Lillian wakes up to the sounds of water boiling in the small apartment she shares with her mother. It’s time to get ready for school, and Lillian quickly dives into her morning studies. She’s at the top of her class, and wants to keep it that way.  Around the corner in his home above the family’s African restaurant, Arouna does his morning prayers. His wife steps softly downstairs to begin cooking her delicious curries and stews. Blocks away in his penthouse loft, JJ has already been on his laptop for hours. There are meetings to plan, and deals to make. JJ has big dreams for Jeppestown and imagines an urban oasis bursting with converted lofts, art galleries and restaurants among the dilapidated streets of Johannesburg’s Downtown East Side. But Jeppe has always had a life of its own.  Shot by a team of up-and-coming South African directors, JEPPE ON A FRIDAY is a rollicking look at how identity and community are defined in a changing African metropolis. Underneath it all are everyday struggles, laughter and love, and the discovery of how to live with, or apart from each other.

Following in the form of ‘St-Henri, the 26th of August’ «Jeppe on a Friday» is the second in a tryptich of neighbourhood documentaries shot by local filmmakers over the course of one day.

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