Selection

Screening: Professional Competition 2
South Africa 2020
Duration: 08:48
Directed: Erentia Bedeker
Screenplay: Dorette Nel
Production: Dorette Nel
Dialogue Language: English

TWO SALE TOYS, CRUELLY REJECTED BY THE BUYING PUBLIC BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT, MAKE A DARING ESCAPE AND END UP SOMEWHERE QUITE UNEXPECTED AND SOMEHOW WONDERFUL... Synopsis: In an airport, where a flood of anonymous faces hurry by, and airport stores’ shelves are stacked with dozens of identical products – coveted for no reason at all – lives Ruby and Roach, two SALE toys. Discarded to the top shelf, and kept out of sight because they are different, they seem fated to stay behind as all the other toys find their forever homes. Each day they groom themselves. Ruby fluffing her grey fringe extra buffy to hide the stain, and Roach combing his creepy feelers into something resembling a fringe and tucking them in behind a leg. Sometimes they get lucky and someone takes them off the shelf for closer inspection. But they’re soon put back. Ruby because of her stained ear and Roach… well… When he gets over excited or tense, his legs start shivering and bam! His feelers jump out, scaring people off. One day, someone’s trolley, loaded with suitcases, bumps into the shelves. Ruby, tired of her dreary life, decides to take action and jumps into an open bag onto the trolley. Roach, in a moment of sheer panic, closes his eyes with his feelers and jumps after her. But before the duo can climb out of the bag, someone shoves a jacket over them and zips the bag closed, trapping them. After a short trip in complete darkness, the bag goes through airport security scanner. On screen Roach’s feelers resemble wires of a bomb and… bam! They trigger a bomb scare. The bomb squad arrives. After closer inspection they decide Ruby and Roach are harmless and toss the seemingly worthless toys into a dustbin. Freedom at last! Until a dark shadow is cast over the bin... Soon Ruby & Roach find themselves on a rubbish dump with many other items discarded by society. All seems lost till a little girl who lives on the dump, discovers them… It’s a story laden with metaphor about prejudice in society, as well as the generic, mass manufactured nature of the things we desire - told from the point of view of the imperfect and unconventional reject pile.