Buhle (Nelisa Mchunu) works at Sunset Supermarket in Kwa Mashu, Burbam, South Africa, but she aspires to open her own business and dreams of becoming the Chicken Queen. She does not believe that her ex-boyfriend, Xolani (Thabo Malena), has turned over a new page after being released from jail for five years. To get him to stop courting her at work, she fills out a lottery ticket to get him to leave her alone. When she finds out that he won, she schemes on how to retrieve the ticket. “Lottery Love” (2024) is a vibrant, hilarious rom com.
Writer and director Mlungisi Mhlanga distinguishes “Lottery Love” from the pack because it is about normal, flawed, three-dimensional people whom the audience will love and not want to leave. Buhle is an ambitious woman, and unlike most films, everyone loves her aspirations, and the story does not try to humble her. Buhle is not perfect. She is judgmental, a bit reckless and never brooks disrespect, perceived or imaginary. These traits also make her fun to watch because she is not entirely wrong. She has a strong sense of morality, which falters in the face of a ton of money, but leads her to a valuable lesson of appreciating what she has while she is striving for a better future. She remembers to prioritize people over goals without losing sight of them. Mchunu is so organic that it is easy to forget that she is playing a character.
Buhle is a talented cook, but she is not just focused on herself. She cheers on her best friend and coworker, Thando (Nombulelo Mhlongo), because she believes that she would be a better manager than Craig (Adam Dore), an unscrupulous man who is not a good boss and cheats his customers. These friends are different from each other, and outside the store, they have rich lives and live like queens according to their means. The best scene between them is when Buhle serves chicken to Thando as if they are not in her studio apartment, but in a five-star restaurant. Plus, the food looked good too. Mhlongo is another natural who seems like Mchunu’s friend in real life. Also Dore takes a character that could be helpful and is still deeply problematic but makes him sympathetic.
If you know me or have been reading my reviews, you know that I’m strict, and “Lottery Love” gets me to cosign that Xolani deserves a second chance. Maleni and the story pulled off the impossible! On first impression, with his colorful suits, he seems like a big talker who promises and does not deliver. He apologizes with a chocolate bar. It is of course ridiculous, and Buhle is right to reject him, but it turns out that he is genuinely changed. He rebuffs his father’s manipulation, and the colorful suits actually symbolize the change from a life of crime to embracing the color scheme of the church. Green is a vibrant color filled with life. He spends all his time working at a soup kitchen and socializing with his well-intentioned pastor, Jason (Peter Hattingh), who is giving the dreadful dating advice, is a complete goof ball and should not say grace. These scenes are hilarious in the vein of “Rev.,” and while “Lottery Love” is perfect as a movie, if it became a series, I would watch every episode. Mchunu and Malema have great chemistry.
Also Xolani likes Buhle because she is Buhle. He can name specific characteristics that only she possesses. He admires and encourages her aspirations to open a chicken business and is a perfect example of positive masculinity. They both enjoy spending time with each other doing ordinary things. Xolani’s lesson is learning how to be a Godly husband before he is worthy of dating Buhle. Genesis 2: 24 says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.” More importantly, he must learn how to think for himself and not just outsource his decisions to a different father figure in Jason. Xolani and Buhle are partners. There is not a third wheel in their relationship.
“Lottery Love” takes it to absurd, dramatic levels in the denouement that felt like too much of a serious escalation compared to everything that came before but because it manages to keep it light, it works though the margin is slim. The plot twist could turn off some viewers, but Mhlanga plays it for laughs using the characters’ wardrobe as a punchline and obeying certain tropes to skewer them. Mhlanga edited with Sibongile Malefo, and their sense of timing is their secret weapon. In one hilarious scene, as Xolani is giving Buhle information, the camera pans left to show that she has already left. The next scene is slo mo showing her dashing down the street with Xolani struggling to keep up. Comedy is hard and almost impossible to pull off without feeling needy or heavy handed, but Mhlanga has the gift. Also humor does not always translate across different cultures, but Mhlanga’s funny bone transcends borders.
Even without the camera work and editing skills, Mhlanga finds ways to insert humor in every moment. The television segments seem like the customary prose dump narrative devices but pay attention because it ends up being its own bit. The news anchor and the lottery official end up facing off and clashing. Mhlanga finds a way to address social issues without feeling pedantic or heavy handed. In the more quotidian moments, he showcases the neighborhood in a way that is filled with pride. It is not necessarily the expected tourist picturesque shot, but it is gorgeous nevertheless. He reflects the neighborhood issues like the need for a living wage, food deserts, corporate exploitation, poor service to Black customers and other forms of corruption without sacrificing the main story. If only every movie could do that. Looking at you, “One Battle After Another” (2025) and “Eleanor the Great” (2025).
Mhlanga’s light and deft touch is rare to find, but he could not have done it without an amazing cast. Again, pulling off comedy is hard, and comedic actors can be the most insufferable, needy people on Earth, but these characters are not just punchlines. The actors make them seem like people that you know even the ones who could be seen as villains. “Lottery Love” is my favorite film of the handful that I watched from the Silicon Valley African Film Festival. It is super cute. Even though it was originally a television movie and has a BBC sitcom feel, Mhlanga’s first feature proves that he clearly has an eye and a heart to go to the big screen if he feels like it is the right move for him without losing the ownership of his unique voice and vision.
