Aletta Bezuidenhout
2021Paljas
Katinka Heyns
Marius Weyers, Aletta Bezuidenhout
The greatest feature to emerge thus far from South Africa (since 1994) is Katinka Heyns's Paljas. The narrative occurs in the 1960s, when poverty amongst Afrikaners was a serious problem and the South African Railway a key mechanism in Afrikaner affirmative action. This excellent Afrikaans language drama follows the deterioration of an Afrikaner family isolated and shunned in the small community of Toorwater. Nothing seems to happen. Then a circus train loses its way and comes to rest in Toorwater, and a mysterious clown brings fresh magic to the stagnating family, but he also poses a threat to the rest of the community. Heyns brilliantly succeeds in creating a metaphor for the Afrikaner family's turbulent emotional, cultural and ideological journey from the darkness of apartheid back into the light of post-apartheid reconciliation (famililial, cultural and political).
Paljas
Ring of the Nibelungs
Uli Edel
Benno Fürmann, Alicia Witt
In this swords-and-sorcery tale, good-hearted blacksmith Eyvind hides away infant Prince Siegfried after two malevolent kings murder his father. But a fiery meteor sent by the gods reveals Siegfried's destiny, sending him on the quest of a lifetime. To save a crumbling kingdom claim the heart of his true love, he'll have to slay the nefarious dragon, Fafnir.
Ring of the Nibelungs
Pure Blood
Ken Kaplan
Carl Beukes, Aletta Bezuidenhout
Combining a new age black maid, blood-drinking zombie racists and a plot to poison the town with blood cakes, what ensues is a dark comedy that pits the forces of fascism against the redeeming power of true love and home cooking…
Pure Blood
