Yesterday (2004 film)

Credited cast

Plot

Yesterday is a Zulu mother living with her seven-year-old daughter, Beauty, in their rural village of Rooihoek (English translation means literally "red corner"), in Zululand, South Africa. Every day of her life is spent in the hard work of tilling the field to plant enough food for them, fetching water, cutting firewood and hauling it home, all while also trying to keep her daughter stimulated and occupied. She strikes up a friendship with the new teacher who arrives in the village.

Yesterday is plagued by a persistent cough and feelings of weakness. She goes to the local clinic, which is an extremely long walk for her and Beauty. She waits all day in the long queue to see the doctor, only to be turned away at the end of the day without having seen the doctor. She brushes it off, saying that she is not that ill. When Beauty finds her mother collapsed on the doorstep of their home, she runs to call her mother's friend, the teacher. Yesterday consults a traditional healer, but her teacher friend insists she return to the clinic. The teacher pays for a taxi to the clinic so that she can get there early enough to see the doctor; the teacher also takes care of Beauty for the day. The doctor who sees Yesterday asks her where she got her name from, and Yesterday explains that her father named her Yesterday because, "He said things were better yesterday than today." The doctor tells Yesterday that her illness is AIDS-related and that she probably got it from her husband, who is away working in a mine. After hearing the news, Yesterday is very upset. Yesterday understands that she will die from this disease, leaving her daughter alone.

She makes a plan to travel to the mine where her husband, John, works to tell him the news and to tell him that he also is sick. He reacts to this news very badly and beats her, while his supervisor looks in and then looks away. Yesterday goes home and tries to continue living her life as best she can. She asks her teacher friend to take care of Beauty when she dies. A few months later John comes home to her. He is very ill from AIDS-related illnesses and begs Yesterday's forgiveness for blaming her and for beating her for telling him the truth. He explains that he has been fired from the mine, as he is now incontinent and there are no toilets down in the mine, so all day he would stink "like an animal". The other villagers, who do not understand HIV/AIDS, protest at having John living amongst them and say that he must leave or go to hospital. Yesterday tried to get her husband into a nearby clinic but was unsuccessful, as there were no available beds for him and he would need to be put on a waiting list. Due to this, she sets out to make her own hospital on a nearby hill. Using sheet metal and pieces of old cars and taxis, she puts together a building, which she then helps her husband to with her daughter's assistance.

As they are making the laborious journey to the "hospital", John comments that when he was young he could run from one end of this field to the other and not think of it, now it seems like the longest journey of his life. Yesterday and Beauty take care of him as well as they can until he dies. Yesterday's focus then falls on preparing Beauty for school. Yesterday never went to school, so her single goal becomes living long enough to be able to see Beauty attend. When the doctor tells her she has a strong body that keeps the illness somewhat under control she replies it's not the body but her mind. Yesterday watches as her daughter starts her first day at school and then walks off as the camera pans back from her.

Awards