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‘Carissa’ Review: A South African Youth Portrait That Knows the Value of Stillness
Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar's debut feature 'Carissa' is a quietly evocative study of a young woman adrift in rooibos country.
Simultaneously still and transporting, set on the rooibos-growing slopes of South Africa’s Cedarberg mountains, “ Carissa ” is a coming-of-age story steeped in the character of an indigenous tea loved and mispronounced the world over — its mellow late-afternoon earthiness, its burnt floral aroma, its warm tobacco hue. But if there’s a lot of muzzy magic-hour beauty in Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar ’s debut feature, it’s no hollow travelogue: Closely scrutinizing its young, antsy title character before gradually expanding its gaze, “Carissa” is rich with feeling for the callused hands and hearts of an overlooked but industrious countryside population. The film’s palette may lead with the crispy, coppery browns of rooibos itself, but the tall African sky is its own constantly shifting mood board of hottest pinks and deepest blues — promising other worlds to Carissa, perhaps for other days in the future, somewhere beyond the mountain.
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