Country: South Africa
Year: 2020
Duration: 117'
1930s. Karoliena Kapp lives with her mother in an isolated logging community in Knysna Forest, South Africa. Karoliena draws Johannes Stander's attention and before she turns eighteen she marries the man, leaves her home and moves to the city. Forced to get used to a role of wife that she does not accept, the day after the wedding Karoliena runs away to return to the forest. The conflict between the desire to remain true to herself and her origins and the obligation to return to married life will push Karoliena on the brink of madness.
Biography
film director
René van Rooyen
(South Africa) graduated in directing and screenwriting from the Cape Town Film Academy. Together with Corne van Rooyen in 2012 she set up the production company Red Letter Day Pictures, with which she co-produced several fictional films. In the same year she directed her first short film, Nantes (2012), followed two years later by Pathology (2014). She then directed Mooirivier (2015) with Tim Theron and later worked mainly on television series. Selected to enter Realness, a screenwriter's residence, she is currently working on her next feature film, Vrees
FILMOGRAFIA
Nantes (cm, 2012), Pathology (cm, 2014), Mooirivier (coregia Tim Theron, 2015), Getroud met rugby (serie tv, 2015), Fluiters (serie tv, 2016), Alles Malan (serie tv, 2019), Toorbos (Dream Forest, 2020).
Declaration
film director
“Torn between the forces of progress and her forest home, it explores the relationship between modernity and the Anthropocene. Whilst set in the 1930s, the impact of colonialism and Apartheid on nature, reflects the world we live in today. On the one side is push for economy of expression and increasing pressure of progress, efficiency, practicality, power, control and money ... and on the other side subtlety, organic, wild, free-spiritedness and independence. These dualities establish the psychological framework that push, pull, uproot and test Karoliena's character.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: René van Rooyen. STORY: from the novel by Matthee Dalene. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Brendan Barnes. FILM EDITING: Ronelle Loots, Dries Scholtz. SET DESIGN: Waldemar Coetsee. MUSIC: Andries Smit. CAST: Elani Dekker, Stiaan Smith, Ira Blanckenberg, Clare Marshall, Ivan Abrahams, Gretschen Ramsden. PRODUCTION: The Film Factory.
CONTACTS: The Film Factory South Africa, Dries Scholtz dries@thefilmfactory.co.za
