Boy called Twist

Boy called Twist, is a 2004 film that tells the story of a Cape Town street kid, based on Dickens’ classic, Oliver Twist. It was the first film directed by Timothy Greene. Fundraising for the film involved small donations from a thousand investors, leading to the longest Associate Producers listing in the history of cinema. Twist's mother dies in childbirth in the middle of nowhere. Fearing blame, the locals bury her in an unmarked grave and drop the baby at a rural orphanage, where he is named Twist. Growing up in the dusty wastes of the Swartland, sold from orphanage into child labour... on the farms, and later to a rural undertaker, Twist finally takes his fate into his own hands and escapes to Cape Town. Wide eyed at the wonders of the city, he falls in with Fagin - an ancient Ethiopian, Rastafarian, who runs a network of child thieves. His new friend Dodger teaches him the tricks of the trade, but the inexperienced Twist is caught trying to steal from Ebrahim Bassedien. Although neither understand it, there is a strange affinity between this old man - who has lost his daughter - and the young boy who never knew his mother.
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