Four Corners

Coming of Age Crime Thriller

Tagline

Criminal Gangster, Chess Prodigy or Real Family?

Logline

The four corners of a chessboard and the four corners of a prison cell are the battlegrounds for the soul of teenage ghetto kid, Ricardo Galam, and he has to choose.

Synopsis

A 13-year-old chess prodigy, Ricardo Galam, is drawn into Cape Town’s notorious child gang culture. His absent father, recently released from prison, tries to break the pattern of violence and keep his son away from the Four Corners.

A rival gang leader is fatally wounded and is wheeled into emergency at Groote Schuur General Hospital. The tattooed old warrior’s operation is conducted by Leila Domingo, a London-trained South African surgeon who is briefly home to bury her father, Buckey.

Ricardo is released on probation back into a world harshly divided into gang territories and allegiances. Fatherless and brought up by his granny, Faita, his prodigal gift for playing chess and his involvement with feisty girlfriend, Franki, compete with the street gangs in offering him a surrogate home.

He is drawn into the world of the gangs by Gasant, a 22-year-old Americans gang boss, who first bullies Ricardo into gambling for money on a chess match, then pressurises him into taking part in a theft to prove his worthiness as gang material.

Meanwhile, Detective Tito Hanekom, who released Ricardo, is conducting an ongoing investigation into the disappearance and abduction of young boys connected by family and association to the 26’s, the traditional rivals of the 28’s.

Unknown to Ricardo, living in the world of the 26, the 28 general Farakahn, is the father he has never met. Farakahn finds the world of his old Oval Street South neighbourhood changed irrevocably. The community living in fear on the streets as dirty money, weapons and juvenile gangs overwhelm the area. In this chaotic milieu Farakahn attempts to create a neutral haven for himself.

Leila’s father has left her his home in Oval Street South, hoping that this will draw her back to her old community. She finds herself living two doors away from Farakahn, who she knew as a youth before his house was taken and his father killed. Farakahn finds himself torn between rebuilding community, relationships and family, and answering the Numbers’ call for revenge.

With a loaded gun in Ricardo’s hand, the climatic end scene throws together the stories of Tito, Leila, Farakahn and Ricardo with life changing consequences for them all.

(The Four Corners -‘Die Vier Hoeke’ - is South African prison slang for the four corners of a prison cell.)