The Storekeeper
The Storekeeper
| 06 March 1998 (USA)
The Storekeeper Trailers

An elderly man owns a small, isolated general store, somewhere in rural South Africa. After suffering a series of burglaries, which culminate in the murder of a night-watchman, the Storekeeper finally takes the law into his own hands - with tragic consequences.

Reviews
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
mstern18 Strange that when I saw this I did not really think about the gun control message. What I did see this film as was the simple story of one man doing what he can to live. It seems that he lives something of a lonely life and the viewer is meant to sympathize with him a great deal. Stylistically, an interesting film. Almost minimalist in a way, because of the lack of dialogue. I thought that this style was a little forced in one or two places, but otherwise it worked very well. I like the fact that whatever language you may speak you can watch the film the same way. And another thing: the scene in which the gun goes off reminded me a lot of the "baptism" scene in the Godfather. Both have a ceremony going on in a church, with music, contrasted with cutaways to violence happening elsewhere. Strange coincidence(?)...
bob the moo An elderly man owns a small convenience store in rural South Africa. He has not much stock and doesn't take much money but what he has is his and he tries to protect it the best he can. However one robbery continually tries to steal from him no matter what steps he takes to protect against it.On the DVD for Tsotsi, this short film has a very clear message that greeting aggression with more aggression is not going to solve anything in even the short or even long term. It is a simple message and indeed it is delivered within quite a simple short film. This will perhaps annoy some viewers and it is a weakness that the message is so obviously played out. I suppose this was unavoidable given the way the story goes but in credit to Hood the subtly he lacks here as writer he has as director. Without any dialogue the film uses the actors' faces and bodies really well to convey emotion and it is expertly shot throughout, having a good sense of place to it that doesn't do down the area or gloss it up like some films will do with "wilderness" type settings.Overall then a simplistic short film but it still manages to be engaging despite the rather basic message being ultimately delivered in a rather obvious way. However Hood makes up for his writing with his direction, which is roundly good.
deadkerouac Gavin Hood's THE STOREKEEPER is a mini-masterpiece of filmmaking, a film short with no dialogue, yet with very moving characters, whose facial expressions and body language make the short work. A storekeeper in South Africa goes to extreme lengths to keep from being repeatedly burglarized. We know exactly what'll happen as the story progresses, yet we're powerless to stop it.
shaun j The Storekeeper is a highly underrated short from South Africa that I was lucky enough to catch at the NZ film festival this year. Superbly and simply directed without dialogue, it is a powerful and intense anti-violence statement and a minor masterpiece. Catch it if you can.