SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

Directed by: Malik Bendjelloul
Running time: 86 minutes

I wonder about the love you can't find
And I wonder about the loneliness that's mine
I wonder how much going have you got
And I wonder about your friends that are not
I wonder I wonder I wonder I do

I thought that this year's documentary feature that won in the Oscar will at least fall into 5 Broken Cameras or The Gatekeepers. But it turns out that this one won and I wonder, what do this have that the other don't?

It certainly has no controversy or political and perhaps because of being far from controversy it stood out among other nominee. Not that the other nominees are bad, some I haven's seen and personally I think 5 Broken Cameras should won.

It tells about a mystery surrounding an American singer folksong named Sixto Rodriguez. He made two albums in the U.S. in the 70s and then vanish into thin air. He did not leave a significant mark in America at all. But fame is his destiny. His vinyl arrived in South Africa and he is very famous there from time to time. His songs inspired a divided South Africa suffered from apartheid. But no one know (at the time being) where he is now.

Is it true that Rodriguez had killed himself in a stage? Or died because of drug overdose? No one seem to know for sure and myths start to grow wild, as wild as how fast his record sold in South Africa. Until a handful of South Africans, journalist and record store owner, try their own luck unsolving the mysterious Rodriguez to a very surprising end.

I don't want to spoil you the end since it is better if you knew nothing about this film or Rodriguez himself. It begins in Detroit and end in Cape Town where the Swedish documentarian Malik Bendjelloul, first heard about Rodriguez from the owner of a Cape Town record shop called Mabu Vinyl. Then a series of interviews and artistic scenes help us to solve each mystery of Rodriguez.

As a documentary about music it is filled with Rodriguez's song and as for me, I like it at the first time I heard it. The songs has souls and the lyrics shows the struggle of a working class person in the industrialized world. Most of his lyrics are inspiring and I think he is another kind of Bob Dylan.

Nearing the end, this documentary is inspiring. One quote that I liked, from Rodriguez's daughter (it is not verbatim, I just write the soul of it):  Just because someone is poor it does not mean that they do not have a big dream and not have a rich soul.

It is inspiring for those who tries to make a dent in this universe that if you are not famous in your own country, you can be famous and fabulous in another place. Like Narnia, Asgard or Vulcan. There you can be more fabulous than ever.