AfricaIs aCountry

Denzel Washington is a Cape Town cop

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Denzel Washington is a Cape Town cop

By
Dylan Valley

When Hollywood comes to our doorstep they use Cape Town as a cheap stand in for somewhere else. We don't get to see our city on screen; represented authentically.

Denzel Washington in "Safe House" (Film still).

The trailer for the new Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds feature “Safe House,” just got released officially on the interwebs yesterday. The film centers around rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost (Washington in Training Day mode again) on the run from a generic group of bad guys. Reynolds’ character, the CIA safe house’s caretaker in Cape Town, has been given the task of moving him to the next secure location. Cue endless chase scenes and explosions.

The reason why I’m excited about this is that it is shot and set in Cape Town.

Usually when Hollywood comes to our doorstep they use Cape Town as a cheap stand in for downtown LA, Rio, or anywhere else in Africa. We rarely get to see our city on screen, and almost never is it represented authentically.

It’s fun to see not just the expected swooping helicopter shots over Table Mountain, but a chase scene in Lower Main Road Woodstock; De Waal drive (with its view of Table Bay) and Denzel dressed up in South African Police uniform. Nice use of the Kanye West/ Jay – Z track “No Church in the Wild” as well.

That said, time will tell if the film is any good. I have hope.

Further Reading

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After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.