Loyiso Gola State Of The Nation (DVD): Review

Film

Multi-award nominated Loyiso presents an hour long stand up, dealing with several current issues, and some history and culture from the Cape Town local.

While the humour might go over the heads some of those who do not know the South African mixed culture, this does introduce some very true yet funny concepts about life here. And there is no one spared, with fun being made of every race and culture, there is also the angle that humour unites us here in South Africa, allowing us to laugh at ourselves, in trying times and forget the hardships of every day life.

The several gags told by Gola are funny, and while taste in humour and subject matter is always rather subjective, coloured by ones own life experience, there is bound to be at least a few that any viewer will find funny. For the rest of the gags, skip these, and get on to the ones you enjoy, thanks to the descriptive gag selection menu.

The disc is well presented, edited to get right to the point, and jumping right in to the funny. There is bound to be something for everyone here in South Africa to laugh at, and a few titbits for friends and family overseas to learn a thing or two about us.

Disc

Loyiso Goya: State of the Nation is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.

Video

Video is encoded at a high bitrate. There are no visible artefacts on screen. Colours are vibrant, and blacks are deep, with no colour bleed.

Those with the relevant hardware or software can scale the image up to a larger or higher resolution screen.

Audio

The first batch of discs manufactured claim to be presented in a 5.1 soundtrack, the only track available is a 2.0 mix. This has been remedied, and feedback from the distributors is that all future batches now contain the correct 5.1 soundtrack as well. Audio is encoded at a reasonable bitrate.

For international audiences, Loyiso does speak in a mix of English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. The predominant language is English, with several accents from the local areas of Cape Town.

Navigation

The disc gets right to the main menu, a simple, static one. There is some quirky background music that becomes almost hypnotic after a few loops. With just two options, to play or watch the short bonus clip, this is very easy to navigate.

Bonus

There is one bonus clip on the disc, Beetroot, which is a slight expansion on one of the gags told during the mean feature, with some simple animation added.

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb