Searching for Sugar Man – 6.5

There was one heartwarming, tear-inducing moment in this documentary: when the obscure-everywhere-but-South-Africa folk singer Rodriguez makes a triumphant visit to Cape Town, 25 years after he is last heard of and presumed dead, and performs to an adoring, screaming sold-out crowd. The other virtue of the film lies in introducing us to the Dylanesque music of Rodriguez: the songs are all truncated, but we hear enough to make us, sort of, want to hear more. Rodriguez himself is presented as something of a Christ figure – a carpenter with no material possessions who helps the poor – although one wonders why there is no mention of the mother(s?) of his three daughters. Unfortunately, he is inarticulate, which is hard to square with the biting lyrics of his music, and I had an underlying confusion as to why a movie was being made in 2012 about a discovery in 1998.

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