Wild Is The Wind is a crime thriller that follows the journey of two cops, Vusi and John, who are called in to investigate the high-profile murder case of Melissa Van Der Walt, the local Mayor’s niece.
Written and directed by Fabian Medea, Wild Is The Wind explores the issues of corruption and racial discrimination in South African society. The movie stars Mothusi Magano, Frank Rautenbach, Chris Chameleon, Monay Monyane, and Nicolus Moitoi in key roles.
Wild Is The Wind Story Summary
Vusi (Magano), a black South African, and John (Rautenbach), a white Afrikaner, are senior police detectives in a small African town. Despite their racial differences, they have a strong bond of friendship. They make extra money on the side to provide for their families by siding up with criminals.
One night they kill a drug lord’s gang members and seize cocaine following a deal between the two and the drug lord, Mango (Brendon Daniels), which results in a promise of an outrageously large exchange of money. The justification that they both have for their corrupt actions is that they are doing it to ensure their family’s secure future.
Before the deal gets through completely, one morning, they are assigned to investigate an abandoned car. On following the trail with the help of a search party, they find a dead body in the middle of the forest belonging to a woman identified as Melissa Van Der Walt, the Mayor’s niece. After listening to the terrible news of the demise of their only daughter, her parents break down. John assures Martin, Melissa’s father, that they will soon find out the murderer and make sure he pays for his crime.
Vusi doesn’t want to get involved in the murder case as he just wants to use the money that they will get from the drug dealers to leave town with his pregnant wife, Abby, to settle away from this small town. When insisted by John, Vusi struggles with his ideologies, asking questions and raising racial discrimination concerns that if it’s not his fight, why should he fight it when not much attention was paid when the same happened to the black people?
The murder case gathers media attention as the victim was Mayor’s niece, consequently making the investigation a top priority. Vusi agrees to stay on the case and lead the murder investigation with John when he hears the announcement made by the police that a 250,000 grand award will be offered to the department for the arrest and conviction of Melissa’s killer, based on the decision by the Mayor.
A press meet is called in, in which difficult questions are raised by a reporter drawing attention to the cases related to local drug rings that weren’t as seriously investigated as this case and also concerns about corruption in the police department. The question of whether this case would have gathered this much attention if a black person was found dead is also raised.
Not only do Vusi and John face the issues coming to the surface in the African town, but they also tackle these issues in their police department and within themselves as they proceed with the case. They investigate the matter further which clearly shows to them that the town is racially segregated, causing a myriad of problems including the rise of assumptions that the murderer must be black.
Questioning Melissa’s parents, friends, and the bar owner, whose bar Melissa and her friends had been to, results in the discovery of Melissa’s abusive ex, Hennie, who had a bad temper and had also slapped Melissa on the night she was murdered. On looking into the videotapes given by the bar owner, Vusi and John come across crucial evidence of the involvement of a hijacking gangster, Kop, who works for the Russians.
During the investigation, Hennie confesses he was abusive to Melissa but tells them that after leaving the bar, he went to a friend’s place to drink and he has an alibi to prove that he wasn’t involved in the murder at all. He also tells them that he suspects the gangster called SonnyBoy for whom Melissa left Hennie.
Meanwhile, Vusi gets the money from the drug dealers and they follow him to keep an eye on him just in case he crosses them. Concerned over the illegal path Vusi has taken to get money, in a desperate attempt to get out of town, Abby disagrees with his decisions and tensions arise between them.
Wild Is The Wind Ending Explained
The Police department decides to look into the involvement of drug dealers in the murder case and goes to search the area where the dealers are usually holed up. Despite Vusi warning Mongo about the search warrant, he becomes unhappy about Vusi and John crossing him.
Vusi faces trouble from the Russian criminal drug dealers as they intrude into his house and threaten to kill his family at gunpoint. Therefore, Vusi loses all the money he got from the drug negotiations including John’s share. Shocked over this incident, Abby feels unsafe. Heartbroken over how things turned out for them because of Vusi siding with the drug lords, Abby leaves town to take over her mother’s job as a maid.
After the arrest of SonnyBoy, a young black man, the local black people retaliate. SonnyBoy is questioned, and he reveals that Melissa didn’t want her family to know about their relationship. Therefore, after leaving the bar together, she asked him to get out of the car midway and proceeded to drive alone despite knowing that a white bakkie was following her. It is also found by John that SonnyBoy has a criminal record and has been in and out of jail. Hence, John finds it difficult to believe that SonnyBoy may be innocent.
Was SonnyBoy Behind Melissa’s Murder?
Vusi looks into the tapes carefully again and finds out the identity of the ‘Bakkie’ SonnyBoy told them about. Vusi wants to do the right thing now, so he goes on to collect evidence all on his own by following the clue given by SonnyBoy. He gets the video footage of the white bakkie and follows his car and collects the DNA sample and sends it to the forensics.
The forensics department report confirms that the white bakkie’s DNA sample matches that of skin fragments found under Melissa’s nails. When John gets the call from the forensics department, he breaks down knowing that he has blamed SonnyBoy based on prejudices caused by his old criminal record but chooses to make him sign a form confessing his crimes because John wants to get over with the case and get money out of it to solve his financial problems. Hence, John hides this important piece of information from Vusi.
An argument ensues between Vusi and John when Vusi finds out that John made SonnyBoy sign the confession form without informing him about what he is signing. After finding out what John did, in a fit of rage, Vusi punches John, hurting him badly. This action ushers a suspension for Vusi.
Finally, with the help of the forensics report, Vusi finds out the real killer of Melissa, who is none other than Wilhelm, a man Vusi and John had let go previously due to their corrupt policing. Vusi regrets his actions from the past which resulted in the killing of a young girl and the imprisonment of an innocent young black man.
Realizing that he has to make things right, Vusi approaches John and tells him who the real killer is and begs him to prove SonnyBoy innocent. But John chooses to ignore Vusi’s pleas and justifies his actions by saying that he is doing this to ensure financial security for his family.
John takes SonnyBoy to the court amid protests outside the court. But in a sudden turn of events, to avenge their daughter’s death, Melissa’s parents take matters into their own hands, and her father fires into the air to cause distraction. He succeeds as the crowd starts running and while the police go to seize him, Melissa’s mother points her gun toward SonnyBoy and shoots him in his throat.
After not getting support from John and witnessing the loss of an innocent black man’s life, Vusi wants to fight for justice this time. Therefore, he decides to track the killer alone. Upon locating Wilhelm, Vusi gets to know that he is nothing but a psychopath who also reveals that he had killed many women thinking of them as his slaves.
Vusi gets brutally hit in the blood-splattering battle by the serial killer but despite his injuries, Vusi manages to shoot Wilhelm. He then drives Wilhelm’s dead body to the town in his car. After reaching the town and stopping the car in front of a stop sign where the protests were going on, Vusi breathes his last from his wounds.
Wild Is The Wind is now streaming on Netflix.
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