Name: iNumber Number: Jozi Gold
Director: Donovan Marsh
Released: 2023-06-23T19:35:47

In iNumber Number: Jozi Gold, when Chili, a police officer, is tasked with infiltrating a gang, he is forced to choose between the law and his conscience. The film is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

Two police officers, Chili and Shoes, grew up in a home for abandoned children and have been best friends since then.

Chili wants to make a difference, but even when the two friends catch criminals, their efforts amount to nothing, as the criminals easily get acquitted. Whenever Chili gets frustrated with the corruption around him and tries to do something irrational, Shoes is the one who keeps him grounded.

A failed operation leads to the two friends being forced to work with a man named Van Zyl, who has been trying to catch a gang called the Gold Gang but has not been able to make any progress.

Chili and Shoes come up with a plan to arrest the Gold Gang. Chili will infiltrate the gang and join them for a heist, which will allow Shoes and Van Zyl’s team to catch them red-handed.

However, when Chili gets to know the members of the gang and the work that they do, he starts doubting whether arresting the gang is the right thing to do.

Performances

S’dumo Mtshali, who plays Chili, makes his character’s frustration and desire to do something for the good of society evident, but his agitation can sometimes be over the top.

On the other hand, Presley Chweneyagae, as Shoes, is a perfectly compliant police officer. It is amazing how every time Shoes has a gun pointed at a person, the audience can see his hesitation very clearly.

Then there is Brenda Ngxoli, who manages to make the character of the Brigadier highly entertaining. At one point, the audience will start expecting a funny dialogue or two the moment she appears on the screen.

Positives

There are a lot of twists and turns in the film. The heist is written cleverly so that every development has a surprise in store for the audience. Furthermore, these surprises are balanced well, and due to that, the segment does not seem overly stuffed.

The heist is not the only gripping sequence in the film. There are other action sequences and chases that have enough tension to make them exciting and will make the audience wish for a little more action.

The film depicts the law and order of South Africa that keeps failing people. It then raises the question of whether the criminals who serve society are better than corrupt officials who only want to fill their own pockets. The film makes its stance very clear.

It also raises the question of what can be considered fair in a society that has been unjust for so long. A white man asking a Black man if the promotion of his subordinates after the apartheid was fair will definitely raise eyebrows.

Negatives

The way that the film has been shot will break the audience’s illusion of reality. The camera’s movements and the constant zooming in and out interrupt the depiction of the story that the film is trying to tell instead of aiding it.

There are incidents in the film that the audience will have a hard time accepting; Chili’s addition to the Gold Gang is one of them. Even if Chili resembles the dictator, the Gold Gang trusting him and telling him everything about their gang within minutes of meeting him is a little too far-fetched.

Verdict

Despite its flaws, iNumber Number: Jozi Gold is an exciting crime film. The heist in the film has enough twists and turns to keep the audience interested till the very end.