A South African film is making a big impact in Cannes. Janine Stephen spoke to some of those involved in the production
Start popping corks and quaffing champagne: a South African film has been shortlisted for a Palme d’Or award at the international Cannes Film Festival.
It is only the second time in the festival’s 52-year history that a South African film has been shortlisted. “And it’s a big bloody deal,” says actor Gerard Rudolf, backed by enthusiastic murmurs from Husk co-stars Marcel van Heerden and Nicola Hanekom.
Cannes is the film event of the year, attracting up to 3 000 journalists and 10 000 industry buffs. It is not, like the Oscars, a marketing machine which appears to recognise big budgets and the number of bums on seats over quality. Of the hundreds of short films submitted, just 12 made it on to this year’s shortlist and Husk is one of them.
The 11-minute short is a tightly-coiled, taciturn and sparsely worded film. It is shadowed and textured, both visually and textually. The story is set in the rural, ascetic landscape of the Cape’s semi-desert. Lucy (Hanekom) and her alcoholic father, Freddie, (veteran actor Van Heerden) owe money to Hugo, the debt-collector (Rudolf). Father and daughter plan to free themselves, but their actions have unforeseen consequences.
“What adds to Husk’s strength is the fact that none of the characters are really appealing in any sense. There isn’t your normal good person, bad person set-up,” says Rudolf, known for his key roles in Paljas and the television series, Woestynblom.
The nature of a short film means that every moment counts. The actors emphasise the need to decipher the subtext of the script, so as to best present three-dimensional characters who live “beyond the final moments of the film”.
“I’ve always wanted to play the essence of the small-town hero that is Lucy,” says Hane-kom. “She’s tempestuous; she’s like a time bomb – and she’s fragile and courageous and common all in the same moment. To be that gave me a kick.”
All three actors feel Husk escapes being stereotypically South African. “I don’t think it’s Husk’s South Africanness that makes it appealing. It’s more about people than a country,” says Van Heerden. Rudolf agrees. “As far as placing characters in a landscape goes, yes, the characters are South African. But you could put them in any kind of film. It just happened that the events took place somewhere in South Africa – it could have been Latvia.
“I’d rather speak a global language and I think that’s optimally where films should head: towards telling a universal story.”
Husk’s impact and crafted shots were achieved using the minimum of film and time. Funding for South African productions is as sparse as the dialogue in Husk, with the result that shooting was done with one eye on the clock and little space for error – or experimentation.
Hanekom remembers the final day of shooting, where they had no more than 100 feet of film left for the last two scenes. “Everyone surrounded me, and Jeremy [Handler, the director] was saying, `We know you can do it!’ Working under pressure like that is something else,” she says.
The fact that Hanekom can say that they all “sort of owned Husk; it’s our movie”, is testament to the fluid, inclusive style of SA director Jeremy Handler, an award- winning UCLA graduate. “There’s a big difference in working with someone who’s really calculated and puts the technical side of things first and someone who is passionate, like Jeremy,” says Van Heerden. “I worked on a series where they told you exactly what to do and where to stand and it was like putting shackles on.”
“I love Jeremy because he’s such a crazy motherfucker -he’s really insane in the true sense of the word; he’s dysfunctional,” says Rudolf. “Working as an actor in South Africa, one doesn’t often get the opportunity to work with intense directors – real filmic creatures. Sometimes you get the feeling that [some directors] hate actors.”
At a small press function held in Cape Town, Husk executive producer Jeremy Nathan pointed to the importance of short films as “stepping stones to making longer, more important feature films”. Both he and producer Steven Markowitz from Big World Cinema felt exposure at Cannes would aid interest in – and funding for – South African productions.
The actors were less sure that exposure at Cannes would lead to more work. “Unfortunately for the three of us being in the competition is more important for the director, producers and production companies. It seldom happens that any exposure would bring in more work in this country,” says Rudolf.
“Still,” says Hanekom, “the raw energy that’s from this country should be seen; I don’t think it’s easy to match. And for any production to get to this point in Cannes – it’s a miracle.”
Judging of the short film category takes place on May 21 and 22, and the results will be out on Sunday May 23. Rudolf shifts in his seat: “I’m going to stick my neck out and say that I think we’ll win.” The others suck in their breath. “I didn’t think there was a chance in hell we’d win,” says Hanekom.
On May 23 they’ll know whether Husk is the first South African film to pick up a Palme d’Or.
l Two short films from M-Net’s New Directions film initiative will also be seen at Cannes this year. Angel, directed by Barry Berk, is eligible for an award in the public forum section. A poignant tale of two Cape Town bergies, the film received four NTVA Avanti awards and three Avanti craft awards in 1997. Berk was also named best director at the Second Southern African Film and Television Market (Sithengi).
Cry Me a Baby will (following a successful screening at Fespaco in Ougadougou in February this year) be screened in the Black Noir Negra section focused on films from Africa and the African diaspora. Directed by Tamsin McCarthy, the film takes a searing look at a childless woman’s obsession with motherhood.