Movie Review: Deep End

“🔥100% KZN Fresh! Bringing Durban Cinema to a whole new Level🆙”

A film by Eubulus Timothy

Produced through Arclight Productions
in association with the Kwa-Zulu Natal Film Commission and Department of Trade and Industry
Produced by Jacintha de Nobrega, Script by Eubulus Timothy
With Carishma Basday as Sunitha Patel and Greg Kriek as Cory Taylor,
Suraya-Rose Santos, Mahendra Raghunath, Priya Lutchman and Robin Singh.

Duration of film: 93 minutes

Logline: How deep does someone have to go to find themselves? Sunitha is a secret surfer who must defy the odds, her parents and her traditional Indian culture to find where she really belongs and love with a guy who goes against everything she’s ever known. Let’s catch a wave.

Short Synopsis

Deep End is a coming of age story about a young Indian woman, living in Durban where sticking to culture and tradition comes crashing up against wanting to be a part of the bigger world. Sunitha Patel has lived her ‘daddy’s’ dream all her life and now wants to find her own way in the world, even if it means making waves in her society. Through her desire to become a surfer, she gets into conflict with her father who has different visions for her future. But by finding herself on her surfboard, she finds love and even herself.

Deep End

Bringing the exhilarating rush of surfing to the big screen, Deep End, the latest film by Eubulus Timothy and produced by Arclight Productions, at the 2018 Durban International Film Festival.

The film stars Carishma Basday, best known for her role in Material and Greg Kriek, a veteran actor with international experience, Deep End is about a young Indian woman who has to break free from convention to pursue her passion of surfing. The film is about the conflict that comes from going on a journey of self-discovery that means defying her father’s wishes. It’s a female story that centres around a young woman’s struggle for self-expression in a society that supports conformity.

Set on the intoxicating shorelines of Durban’s Golden Mile, Deep End brings one of the world’s most popular surfing sites, Durban, to glorious life.  Inspiration for the film came from Timothy’s observation of surfing and fishing life in Durban.  He saw that surfing was never aspirational for Indians in Durban and watched from afar. Beach culture is the essence of Durban and Timothy wanted to capture the conflict and longing that comes from people wanting to aspire to different things. Timothy says he wanted to tell a story set in his community with characters that are relatable and universal.  “The issues they deal with are common and perennial: relationships, family and a sense of belonging. Deep End is about capturing the essence of culture and the extreme and sometimes dark side of surfing”, he says.

Deep End manages to capture the magic of the water together with the emotions and multitude of experiences that come from one of the most diverse cities in the world. Director of Photography Ebrahim Hajee shows his skilled hand when it comes to imaginatively and beautifully crafting shots of Durban, its people and the magnificent ocean through his experience in documentaries and music videos.

Producer Jacintha De Nobrega is proud of the fact that the film is truly local with 80% of the crew and cast hailing from Kwa-Zulu Natal.  “Our focus is to grow the television and film industry and this can only happen when we engage our local crew and artists and provide the opportunities to up-skill people,” she said.  “We wanted to keep it homegrown and portray characters that are real and not caricatures”, says director and writer Eubulus Timothy. When he wrote the screenplay he had no idea that the themes the film addresses would be so topical. “This is what drew me to the script. As a woman, I could identify with the characters, the journey of self-discovery and pursuit of independence. The story is so universal that woman all over the world will identify with, it just happens to be set in Durban,” says producer Jacintha de Nobrega.

Deep End is about culture, relationships, family, a sense of belonging and capturing the essence of living in Durban. It is set on the beaches of Durban and the extreme and sometimes dark culture of surfing. The characters are exciting and energetic and are easy to relate to on a global level whereas the issues they deal with are common and recurring.

It’s strongly dialogue driven where the style is fast paced, energetic with short, snappy dialogue. There is a rhythm that almost mirrors the pace of a breaking wave. As most of the film is shot outside the sound design feels wide and all encompassing. It captures the buzz and visceral feel of the city without impacting the storyline.

Durban is a vibrant City and has vibrant energy with intense color but it’s also a city of strong contrasts, with overwhelming textures that is influenced by cultural diversity. I love the light and intensity of the city and used it in the film bringing a subtle but lively ambience to the work. So the colour and texture of the film follows a palette of strong bright colours with deep shadows and contrasts. The contrast of the blue-green ocean and the deep blue sky with the white foam of crashing waves captures Durban beach life.

Biographies

Eubulus Timothy – Deep End / Writer/Director

Eubulus is an award winning writer, director and producer of film and television. In Hollywood he won the prestigious Harley-Merrill Screenwriting Award. He was the founding Chairperson of the Durban Filmmakers Guild, representing filmmakers in Durban and the greater KwaZulu Natal. He trained as a director under Randy Zisk (Monk, Desperate Housewives) and Allan Arkush (Crossing Jordan, Heroes,). He has a Diploma in Directing and Cinematography from the Los Angeles City College Film School. At Los Angeles City College, Theater Academy he developed the Acting for the Camera course. Famous Alumni of the Theater Academy include Oscar winners Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin.

Carishma Basday – SUNITHA PATEL

Carishma Basday is a professional actress, dancer and model. The dynamic starlet has always had a penchant for the limelight. Starting Ballet at age 4 she has since trained in many styles of dancing including modern dance, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, belly dancing, funk, fusion, salsa and Latin American. In 2005 she traveled to Chicago as an exchange student where she was a journalist for a local paper, a news anchor and followed her dreams of becoming a professional actress and dancer by landing a role in the play Les Miserables. In 2008 she obtained her degree in performing arts and media studies. Carishma then decided to follow her dreams to Cape Town where she attended Act Cape Town and trained as a film actress. She signed with the Artists One agency in 2009 and has never looked back. She acted in two feature films, i.e. 31 Million Reasons in 2010 starred in her first leading role as the love interest of famed comedian Riaad Moosa in Material. She has been featured in numerous magazines such as the Marie Claire Naked Campaign issue and voted the 19th sexiest women in the world in 2012.

Greg Kriek – CORY TAYLOR

With over 40 screen acting credits to his name Greg Kriek is an award-winning actor who trained in LA at the Larry Moss Studio. In his rising career, he has already had the privilege of acting alongside Hollywood screen legends such as Morgan Freeman, Dylan O Brien, Billy Zane, and many more. Greg will soon be seen in the next installment of Universal Studios’ Tremors as  “Dutch”, in 20th Century Fox’s Maize Runner: The Death Cure, Pureflix’s Samson as one of the leads “Caleb” and also stars as Tony Sinclair in the upcoming biopic Serengeti Rules. As a leading man, Greg is the star of Born to Win (as seen on Netflix) ‘n Man Soos My Pa, Last Ones Out, Tula Tula and The Recce.

Suraya Rose-Santos – NINA ROBERTS

Suraya – An Arabic name meaning “Bright Starlight”. Suraya couldn’t have asked for a more fitting name. Perhaps her parents knew what she was destined to be. A talented motivated go-getter with a passion and flair for performing in the dramatic arts whether it is the stage or the silver screen. She has studied at Michelle Ayden dramatix (M.A.D), a private institute specializing in the performing arts. At the end of 2012 Suraya graduated with a Performance Diploma (specializing in drama) by Trinity Guild Hall London.  A small-town Pretoria girl with high expectations for her future. At the tender age of 24 she is already set to be fast-tracked to the big-time. She has been likened to some of her native South Africa’s most renowned and successful models and actresses, and has been highly sought after by magazines, clothing brands, nutritional supplement and energy drink brands, feature length films as well as local and international music videos among numerous others. 2015 Marked to be the year for this young actress as she made her debut as an individual to be taken seriously in the industry. Starting her year as supporting lead in the award winning South African Film “Free State” to taking charge and being the leading lady in “Last Broken Darkness” the much talked about gripping South African Sci-fi movie, just to name a few. She sees no room for stopping now. Suraya has turned nearly all her passions into careers and all her dreams into a reality.

And INTRODUCING:

Mahendra Raghunath  – NAREN PATEL

He’s been Voted by readers of People Magazine as South Africa’s best-Dressed Man on TV…
Mahendra is best known as a TV NEWS ANCHOR & BULLETIN PRODUCER for SABC News. With a Bachelor of Arts degree (majors in English & Speech and Drama), and Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Speech and Drama under his belt, he has completed a Master of Arts degree in Journalism. Much of Mahendra’s work experience has been in the areas of Television & Radio Broadcasting, Drama & Theatre, and Education and Training. He has played supporting roles in TV series such as “High Rollers”, “The Lab”, and a highlight as a newscaster on the Movie “District 9”.  Mahendra also took time to perform in and direct numerous theatre productions that have toured nationally.
He has lectured at a variety of educational institution, University of Durban-Westville, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Vista University (Soweto), Rand College of Education, M L Sultan Technikon, and Cato Manor Technical College, and is the Author of a series of academic publications.

Priya Lutchman – KALPANA PATEL

Priya Lutchman- a lifelong entertainer, who was dancing since she could balance on two feet, has always had a deep love for music, theatre and drama, having worked behind the camera and backstage for most of the early stages of her career. Her first appearance on camera was with the local South African station Saffron TV in the early 2000’s and after more than 10 years in the industry with various dance and stage productions under her belt, she landed her breakout film role in Deep End, released at the Durban International Film Festival in July 2018”

Was honored & humbled to receive the invite to an *Exclusive screening of this movie at the UIPSA offices in Sandton, whereupon a luxurious mini-cinema awaited us & gourmet snacks were served. The movie was Legend…Wait-For-It…DARY! I truly enjoyed it & what made me more excited was knowing that my parents, who originate from Durban, would love this so much. Having attended a primarily Gujarati {Guji for short} private high school Shree Bharat Sharda Mandir {Even the spelling of this is drilled into my brain lol}, I related all too well to many of the themes in the movie. Almost every Guji girl I dated had a strict & reserved upbringing, it made it difficult to meet up or go out. Was beyond frustrating but also made it quite a challenge to conquer. I have no doubt that this will appeal to many girls & women regarding their experiences especially the Guji/Indian ones. Our culture & mannerisms are rooted much in reputation & reservations, for many they’ve been slow to change & adopt any independence apart from their traditions & legacies. It’s a steep battle that many loose. Which is why I’m so glad for this movie. Shedding a light on these issues & hopefully helping people overcome them.
I loved how Deep End showcased that it isn’t just White racism but that other races have prejudices too. Indian parents prefer that you only date/socialize Indian people and so on. And it’s about Sunitha’s view that all people are equal, that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter your skin color, Love conquers all. It’s about her struggle to overcome her father’s own past psychological traumas with surfing to realize that it’s her one true passion in life.

© Enricoh Alfonzo ~ Alfonzo Words

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