Ten Gears of Change
Ten unemployed farm workers in rural South Africa are given bicycles to compete in the annual cycling marathon.
Director: Lloyd Ross
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| Training for the big race |
When they cross the finish line of the Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, the eleven men that make up Team Thornvale complete a journey that began not 110km back at the starter’s gun, but a world away on an isolated farm in the Free State province of South Africa.
Two months earlier, ten of these men had never before touched a racing bicycle and most had not been beyond the borders of this landlocked and economically depressed province. Now they have completed the world’s largest timed cycle event with over 35,000 other cyclists.
The men live on two farms Rietpan and Thornvale near the small rural town of Viljoenskroon that have been farmed by the Botha family for generations.
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| Viljoenskroon is a rural area |
This film shows the team’s physical and psychological journey from unemployed farm labourers to competition cyclists. The journey may be the main story, but the evident subplot is the special relationship and mutual respect that exists between the farmer and the men living on his farm, men that because of historic circumstances and economic conditions, do not have a particularly bright prospect of betterment.
For them, this bizarre and wonderful journey represents an incredible opportunity that in some way will change their way of thinking about themselves, and their place in the world, forever.
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