Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema

Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)

Jerusalema

Welcome to the promised land.

This South African movie tracks the rise of a once-petty criminal to the heights of the criminal underworld. After cutting his teeth on hijacking, before moving onto bigger game, an ambitious man hits a setback when most of his gang are shot.

Date of release
2008-02-11
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (70)
Runtime
2h 0m
Genres
Action, Crime, Drama
Director
Ralph Ziman

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema, originally titled Jerusalema, is a 2008 South African crime film written and directed by Ralph Ziman. The film was submitted to the 2009 Academy Awards to qualify as a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. It was a box office bomb, grossing only $400,000 against the production budget of $2 million.

Production

Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema is based on the story of Lucky Kunene, an underworld figure who in the 1990s took over real estate in the Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg, South Africa. Writer-director Ralph Ziman learned and investigated

about how a successful businessman bought buildings in Hillbrow through Legal Purchase and began researching the phenomenon, interviewing reporters, police officers, social workers, and lawyers and discovering that this practice was commonplace. Ziman wrote the script for Jerusalema based on his research.

Producer Tendeka Matatu said the characters were based on sketches from their research for the film. The producer said of the character's background: "During the research of the script we came across many MK vets who are living on the very edge of poverty and who, after fighting for a better life for all, now feel betrayed."

Production of Jerusalema was difficult because the filmmakers struggled to find a budget when South Africa's National Film and Video Foundation would not invest in their project. The filmmakers found enough financing to make the film, and Ziman reflected that the budget was smaller than music videos he had directed. Ziman said of the experience, "We used skateboards as dollies on the set and old-technology cameras to film.

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