Duma (film)
Encyclopedia
Duma is a 2005 drama
adventure film
, directed
by Carroll Ballard
. It stars Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker
, Hope Davis
and Campbell Scott
. The film is a fictional adaptation loosely based upon the autobiographical book How It Was with Dooms
by Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft.
, the story begins with a cheetah
cub being orphaned after his mother was killed by lions. The cub is found on the side of the road by a young boy named Xan (Alexander Michaeletos
) and his father Peter (Campbell Scott
). Initially reluctant to take in a wild animal, Peter agrees to let Xan take care of the cub. They name him “Duma”, the Swahili
name for “cheetah”. Over the years, Duma becomes a part of the family, being closely raised by Xan. As he nears adulthood, Peter and Xan decide to teach Duma how to run by having him chase alongside Peter’s motorcycle, which can barely keep up with him. But with Duma almost fully grown, to Xan’s dismay, his father tells him that it is time to take his friend to his real home before he grows too old to survive in his native habitat. His father says to Xan, “Duma has to live the life he was born to – or he’ll never be fully alive.”
Xan reluctantly agrees, but their plans must be put on hold when his father suddenly falls ill and dies and Xan and his mother (Hope Davis
) must move to Johannesburg. Duma comes with them, which wreaks havoc on their life in the city. Xan’s aunt is terrified of Duma, who likes to sneak up and surprise her, and when Duma escapes and pays a disastrous visit to Xan’s school, the two of them must flee the city to keep Duma from being put into captivity. Not knowing where to go, Xan gets an idea – he’ll carry out the plan his dad had outlined, taking Duma home in the neighbouring country of Botswana
, over the scorching Makgadikgadi Salt Pans
, through the Okavango Delta
and into the Erongo Mountains.
Xan begins to drive to his destination in his father’s old motorcycle, with Duma in the sidecar
. After running out of fuel and water in the grasslands, they find some shade underneath a crashed airplane. There, they are confronted by Ripkuna (Eamonn Walker
), a mysterious drifter on a journey of his own. While Xan isn’t at all that sure he can trust Rip, he agrees to go with him. Xan manages to turn the immobile motorcycle into a desert sailboat
out of a parachute from the plane wreck, and Xan, Rip and Duma are on their way again, until they encounter the untraversable scrub brush of the Kalahari Desert
and must abandon the motorcycle. While trying to find shelter, Rip is trapped in an abandoned diamond mine by a cave in, and Xan decides to leave him, as he suspects that he has been leading him to town instead of the jungle to sell Duma and collect a reward for finding him. However, when Duma is caught in a trap and Xan is knocked unconscious by a boar, Rip rescues both of them, having escaped the mine through a ventilation shaft.
Soon, they reach the Okavango Delta
, where Xan is set upon by the deadly wildlife and the churning rapids of the Thamalakane River
, but it’s too late for him to turn back now. Xan, Rip and Duma press through the Okavango, and finally the Erongo Mountains, on the border of Botswana and Namibia
are in sight. However, once they get there, Xan is suddenly set upon by a swarm of tsetse flies
. To protect him from their lethal bite, Rip huddles over Xan and is bitten by hundreds of flies. He soon develops sleeping sickness, and Xan takes him to a nearby village where he can be cared for. Later that night, outside the village, Duma is out on his own and starts calling out into the mountains. Soon, another cheetah responds to him. Duma finds a female cheetah calling to him, and they bond. Xan hears this activity, and realizes that this is where he and Duma must part. Xan says goodbye to Duma, and Duma, comes to Xan and says a final goodbye, and goes back to play with his new female friend. Then Xan goes back to the village to Rip. Before the credits, it shows Xan being reunited with his mother and the film ends.
, though some of the film is set in neighbouring Botswana.
One of the four actual cheetahs that stars in the film currently resides in Kragga Kamma Game Park
in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
planned to not release this film in the United States
theatrically, but Scott Foundas wrote a rave review for the film in Variety
and it led Warner Bros to reconsider. Warner Bros.
finally gave Duma a limited
theatrical release in the US. The film made $870,067 at the North American box office and $124,723 in other territories, making its worldwide box office total $994,790, making it a failure at the box office.
Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 57 reviews; Metacritic
reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
, directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Carroll Ballard
Carroll Ballard
-Biography:Carroll Ballard started out making documentaries for the U.S. Information Agency, Beyond This Winter's Wheat and Harvest ; the latter was nominated for an Academy Award...
. It stars Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker
Eamonn Walker
Eamonn Walker is an English film, television and theatre actor. In the United States, he is known for playing Kareem Said in the HBO television series Oz, for which he won a CableACE Award, and elsewere as Winston, the gay, black thorn in Alf Garnett's side in In Sickness and in Health and John...
, Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
and Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
. The film is a fictional adaptation loosely based upon the autobiographical book How It Was with Dooms
How It Was With Dooms
How It Was With Dooms is a children's book dictated to Carol Cawthra Hopcraft by her young son Xan Hopcraft. It tells the true story of the young boy's friendship with an orphaned cheetah on the family's game ranch in Kenya. Carol Hopcraft, a wildlife photographer, provided photographs for the...
by Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft.
Plot
Set in the country of South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, the story begins with a cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
cub being orphaned after his mother was killed by lions. The cub is found on the side of the road by a young boy named Xan (Alexander Michaeletos
Alexander Michaeletos
Alexander Michaletos is a South-African child actor.Michaeletos made his film and acting debut recently, in the 2005 film Duma, directed by Carroll Ballard. He stars as Xan, a twelve-year-old boy who befriends a cheetah called Duma, and acts with Eamonn Walker, Campbell Scott, and Hope...
) and his father Peter (Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
). Initially reluctant to take in a wild animal, Peter agrees to let Xan take care of the cub. They name him “Duma”, the Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
name for “cheetah”. Over the years, Duma becomes a part of the family, being closely raised by Xan. As he nears adulthood, Peter and Xan decide to teach Duma how to run by having him chase alongside Peter’s motorcycle, which can barely keep up with him. But with Duma almost fully grown, to Xan’s dismay, his father tells him that it is time to take his friend to his real home before he grows too old to survive in his native habitat. His father says to Xan, “Duma has to live the life he was born to – or he’ll never be fully alive.”
Xan reluctantly agrees, but their plans must be put on hold when his father suddenly falls ill and dies and Xan and his mother (Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
) must move to Johannesburg. Duma comes with them, which wreaks havoc on their life in the city. Xan’s aunt is terrified of Duma, who likes to sneak up and surprise her, and when Duma escapes and pays a disastrous visit to Xan’s school, the two of them must flee the city to keep Duma from being put into captivity. Not knowing where to go, Xan gets an idea – he’ll carry out the plan his dad had outlined, taking Duma home in the neighbouring country of Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, over the scorching Makgadikgadi Salt Pans
Makgadikgadi Pan
The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in the middle of the dry savanna of northeastern Botswana. It is one of the largest salt flats in the world...
, through the Okavango Delta
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta. It is formed where the Okavango River empties onto a swamp in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert, where most of the water is lost to evaporation and transpiration instead of draining into the sea...
and into the Erongo Mountains.
Xan begins to drive to his destination in his father’s old motorcycle, with Duma in the sidecar
Sidecar
A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, producing a three-wheeled vehicle.-History:A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper Motor Cycling. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was...
. After running out of fuel and water in the grasslands, they find some shade underneath a crashed airplane. There, they are confronted by Ripkuna (Eamonn Walker
Eamonn Walker
Eamonn Walker is an English film, television and theatre actor. In the United States, he is known for playing Kareem Said in the HBO television series Oz, for which he won a CableACE Award, and elsewere as Winston, the gay, black thorn in Alf Garnett's side in In Sickness and in Health and John...
), a mysterious drifter on a journey of his own. While Xan isn’t at all that sure he can trust Rip, he agrees to go with him. Xan manages to turn the immobile motorcycle into a desert sailboat
Land sailing
Land sailing, also known as sand yachting or land yachting, is the act of moving across land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail. The term comes from analogy with sailing. Historically, land sailing was used as a mode of transportation or recreation...
out of a parachute from the plane wreck, and Xan, Rip and Duma are on their way again, until they encounter the untraversable scrub brush of the Kalahari Desert
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...
and must abandon the motorcycle. While trying to find shelter, Rip is trapped in an abandoned diamond mine by a cave in, and Xan decides to leave him, as he suspects that he has been leading him to town instead of the jungle to sell Duma and collect a reward for finding him. However, when Duma is caught in a trap and Xan is knocked unconscious by a boar, Rip rescues both of them, having escaped the mine through a ventilation shaft.
Soon, they reach the Okavango Delta
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta. It is formed where the Okavango River empties onto a swamp in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert, where most of the water is lost to evaporation and transpiration instead of draining into the sea...
, where Xan is set upon by the deadly wildlife and the churning rapids of the Thamalakane River
Thamalakane River
The Thamalakane River is a river located in Botswana, Africa, at the southern end of the Okavango Delta. It has no well defined beginning and no clear end...
, but it’s too late for him to turn back now. Xan, Rip and Duma press through the Okavango, and finally the Erongo Mountains, on the border of Botswana and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
are in sight. However, once they get there, Xan is suddenly set upon by a swarm of tsetse flies
Tsetse fly
Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...
. To protect him from their lethal bite, Rip huddles over Xan and is bitten by hundreds of flies. He soon develops sleeping sickness, and Xan takes him to a nearby village where he can be cared for. Later that night, outside the village, Duma is out on his own and starts calling out into the mountains. Soon, another cheetah responds to him. Duma finds a female cheetah calling to him, and they bond. Xan hears this activity, and realizes that this is where he and Duma must part. Xan says goodbye to Duma, and Duma, comes to Xan and says a final goodbye, and goes back to play with his new female friend. Then Xan goes back to the village to Rip. Before the credits, it shows Xan being reunited with his mother and the film ends.
Production
The film was shot mostly in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, though some of the film is set in neighbouring Botswana.
One of the four actual cheetahs that stars in the film currently resides in Kragga Kamma Game Park
Kragga Kamma Game Park
The Kragga Kamma Game Park is a small reserve within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.One of the cheetahs featured in the movie Duma resides at Kragga Kamma....
in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Release
Duma had tested badly and Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
planned to not release this film in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatrically, but Scott Foundas wrote a rave review for the film in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
and it led Warner Bros to reconsider. Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
finally gave Duma a limited
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
theatrical release in the US. The film made $870,067 at the North American box office and $124,723 in other territories, making its worldwide box office total $994,790, making it a failure at the box office.
Reception
Duma went on receiving very positive reviews from critics; the review aggregatorReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 57 reviews; Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.