The Forgotten Kingdom (2013)

The Pint-Sized Prophet of Lesotho - The Forgotten Kingdom review by griggs

Landscapes this good deserve a script working half as hard as they are.

Atang comes home from Johannesburg to bury his father, and the film opens well: barely off the bus before he's sat opposite a funeral director, haggling over coffins. There's a decent story in that homecoming alone. The Forgotten Kingdom just won't stop piling more on top of it — mountain treks, omens, a clinic doctor and a priest squabbling over whose medicine actually works, a reunion with his old flame Dineo, whose sister is dying. Plenty happens. I still finished the film knowing barely more about Atang than when it started.

Zenzo Ngqobe brings a sharp, restless energy — like he's wandered in from somewhere louder and livelier than the film's hushed, mythic mood can handle. Lebohang Ntsane fares much better. He's the orphan boy on horseback, forever forecasting the weather like a pint-sized prophet, and the only character who consistently feels unpredictable and alive.

A rare glimpse of Lesotho, wrapped around a film I've effectively seen several times before.