Institute History
Description
South Africa. The present. Nineteen-year-old Sporro is a gifted but vulnerable ghetto musician with dreams of stardom and an escape from poverty. He works at the local abattoir and hangs out with his childhood friend and protector, Paradise, a gangster just out of prison. Sporro’s path crosses with Juliet, a young and beautiful adrenaline-seeking American. She is intrigued by Sporro’s obvious intellect and passion for his music.
When Sporro is given an opportunity by a record company to go on tour, Juliet, armed with a DV Cam, joins him and Paradise in their travels across the country. Juliet is attracted to Paradise's prison tales and macho ways. Jealous, Sporro begins to compete for Juliet’s attention. He starts to act like Paradise and embraces the gangster persona as part of his stage act. Juliet encourages Sporro to borrow more and more from Paradise’s persona, setting in motion an inevitable confrontation between the two men.
As he perfects his imitation of Paradise, Sporro emerges as the new ghetto gangster poet and South Africa’s biggest star. Feeling used and betrayed, Paradise's fight to reclaim his identity descends into psychosis and violence.
Scar is a coming-of-age story about identity and doomed friendship in a world where manhood and machismo are tragically confused.