I, Afrikaner
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91 min
In the sweeping, bitter-sweet tradition of the Plaasroman, Annalet Steenkamp documents four generations of her Afrikaner family over the course of nine turbulent years as they cling to their identity in a scarred and increasingly unrecognizeable country. Far from being the home to the Afrikaner dream, the rural landscape now quivers with mutual racial animosity and violence. Steenkamp’s grandmother flees the family farm, her mother sleeps next to an automatic weapon, and her sister-in-law despairs of raising her family under the shadow of the Swart Gevaar. At the same time, Shanel, Steenkamp’s born-free neice, speaks fluent Sotho, more at home with the farm’s workers than her frankly racist relatives. Alternately scathing and tender, with exquisite visual poetry and heart-breaking insight, I, Afrikaner tests the bruised ligaments between our family and country, and what it means to be bonded to a land that is constantly changing underfoot.
Directed by
Annalet Steenkamp