Die Stropers (2018)
19KDie Stropers: Directed by Etienne Kallos. With Brent Vermeulen, Alex van Dyk, Juliana Venter, Morné Visser. South Africa, Free State region, isolated stronghold to the Afrikaans white ethnic minority culture. In this conservative farming territory obsessed with strength and masculinity, Janno is different, secretive, emotionally frail. One day his mother, fiercely religious, brings home Pieter, a hardened street orphan she wants to save, and asks Janno to make this stranger into his brother. The two boys start a fight for power, heritage and parental love.
“Saw this at 38. Istanbul film festival…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBeautiful cinematography (especially the scene of the mother praying on the farm), good plot twist.nThe images of u0026quot;The Harvestersu0026quot; blur one by one as if the movie were trying to disappear. Dust, heat from the sun, huge and arid crops and even bodies of water look notoriously distorted, worn and at the limit of their existence. This is how Afrikaners groups live in the south of the African continent, isolated in small groups surrounded by the predominant ethnic groups with whom they have been in contact for centuries, but that history has kept them distant, in a relationship of owner and slave and that today are in an exclusive division that is not far from Apartheidu0026#39;s times. The number of populations is reduced, and their stay will not last for a long time – the characters in the film warn -and such is the representation made by the photography, one that portrays the inevitable uncertainty ahead.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eVery strong feature debut from a superbly talented filmmaker. Classic Cain and Abel story with a gay and postcolonial twist. Excited to see what Kallos does next.”
