Heiners Filmseiten – Wah-Wah (en)

Wah-Wah

Russian title: Вау-вау
Original title: Wah-Wah

Alternative titles:
Wah Wah / Bla-Bla

Family drama – South Africa, United Kingdom
Production year: 2004
Movie length: 120 minutes

Director: Richard E. Grant
Writer: Richard E. Grant

Movie description:

Set at the end of the 60s, as Swaziland is about to receive independence from Great Britain, the film follows the young Ralph Compton, at 11, through his parents’ traumatic separation, till he’s 14. It is written and directed by Richard E Grant, and based on true events from Richard E. Grant’s childhood.

Â»Wah-Wah« is a semi-autobiographical »coming-of-age at the end-of-an-Age« story, told through the eyes of young Ralph Compton. Set during the last gasp of the British Empire in Swaziland, South East Africa in 1969, the plot focuses on the dysfunctional Compton family whose gradual disintegration mirrors the end of British rule.
As an 11-year-old, Ralph witnesses his mother’s adultery with his father’s best friend. His parents divorce and Ralph is sent to boarding school. Harry Compton not only loses his wife and best friend, but also his position as Minister of Education with the coming of Independence, prompting his rapid descent into alcoholism. Now 14, Ralph returns home to discover that his father has re-married an American ex-Air hostess called Ruby whom he has known all of six weeks. As round a peg as you could find in this square holed society, Ruby ridicules the petty snobbery of Colonial life by identifying Colonial-speak as sounding like a load of old »Wah-WahÂ«. Although Ralph is initially wary of Ruby, he bonds with her as his father’s drinking escalates dangerously out of control. Meanwhile, the community frenziedly prepares an amateur production of Camelot to impress Princess Margaret who is visiting to preside over Independence. Ralph gets cast, falls in love and discovers a way to escape his hellish home life.

Boy Actors