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Angels in the Dust

A documentary of differences

By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | October 3, 2007

3.0 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Angels in the Dust.

The tagline of Louise Hogarth’s honest, moving documentary asks, “Can one person make a difference?” The answer is a resounding yes when it comes to Marion Cloete, who with her husband, Con, runs an orphanage in South Africa peopled with hundreds of kids whose parents are dying or have died of AIDS. Cloete is a fierce and loving figure, a ferocious defender of her many children, half of whom are infected as well. The facts are grim: rape, particularly of young girls, is widespread as the result of the belief that having sex with a virgin cures AIDS. Parents prostitute their daughters. Olive oil and garlic are recommended on the front page of the newspaper as valid cures. Cloete acts as teacher and healer; she helps the children confront the death around them, and she gives them hope. Amid it all, the kids are kids: they dance and play and laugh, while not far from their mini-village lie acres and acres of graves.

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Topics: Reviews , Health and Fitness , Medicine , Sexual and Reproductive Health , More

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