Duma (film)
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Duma is a 2005 drama/adventure film, directed by Carroll Ballard. It stars Hope Davis, Campbell Scott, and Eamonn Walker. The film is a fictional adaptation loosely based upon the autobiographical novel How It Was With Dooms by Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft. Mr. Xan Hopcraft is portrayed by Alexander Michaeletos in the film.
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[edit] Plot summary
Set in the exotic country of South Africa, Duma tells the powerful adventure tale of an unbreakable bond of friendship between an orphaned cheetah named Duma and a courageous young boy named Xan (Alexander Michaeletos). Xan faces the true test of love when he must cross the wilds of Southern Africa to return his best friend to his rightful home.
When Xan and his father Peter (Campbell Scott) come across an orphaned cheetah cub, they name their new friend "Duma," the Swahili name for cheetah, and he quickly becomes a member of the family. But when Duma is almost fully grown, to Xan's dismay, his father tells him that it's time to take his friend to his real home before he grows too old to survive in his native habitat. As Peter says, "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. 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 to a safe and lush place hundreds of miles across South Africa, over the scorching Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, through the Okavango Delta and into the Erongo Mountains.
Before long, Xan is piloting his dad's motorcycle with Duma riding shotgun in the sidecar, the wind whipping through his fur, as the two friends speed across the barren desert and into the wildest adventure of both their lives.
Seeking the comfort of the only shade for miles, the shadow cast by the remains of an airplane wreck, 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 has to admit that he's going to need some help along the way...and Duma makes for a pretty menacing bodyguard.
With some engineering know-how and a parachute from the downed plane, the motorcycle is transformed into an ingenious desert sailboat, and Xan, Rip and Duma are soon racing at breakneck speed across the scorched flats on the power of the wind, until they encounter the untraversable scrub brush of the Kalahari desert and must abandon their craft.
Entering the lush jungles of the Okavango Delta, Xan finds himself surrounded by danger - lions roaring in the distance, crocodiles gliding beneath the furious rapids of the Thamalakane river, and deadly poisonous creatures crawling through the foliage. But it's far too late to turn back now.
Drawing nearer to the Erongo Mountains where he and Duma must finally part, Xan knows that they will face a final test, and discover if Duma is ready to live the life he was born to.
Tagline: Some friendships are wilder than others.
[edit] Relationship to the book
In both the book How it Was With Dooms and the film, there was a Hopcraft family that lived in Africa with a pet cheetah named Duma. Most of the similarity ends there; the film is set in South Africa, whereas the real-life Hopcraft family lived in Kenya. In the film, Xan is a boy when they adopt Duma, whereas in the book, Duma is already a pet when Xan is born. The book was written after Duma died on the farm when Xan was 7 years old. The main thrust of the film - returning Duma to the wild - is fiction.
[edit] Trivia
- The cheetahs are real and trained to be on-stage with humans; five were used and one had a distinguishing scar on the bridge of its nose.
- The insect swarm in the film is made up of the Tsetse fly species.
- The disease the flies pass on is the usually fatal Sleeping sickness.
