I didn’t want to do an apartheid story,” says director Ian Gabriel. ”Since 9/11 there have been quite a few films about loss and recovery, and South Africa is fortunate enough to now be in a time of recovery.” Specific to context, yet still managing to relate a universal tale about the human condition, Forgiveness, he hopes, transcends its localised story, allowing audiences anywhere to identify, empathise and ultimately be touched.
The film follows former apartheid policeman Tertius Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), to the windswept coastal town of Paternoster in the Western Cape to seek forgiveness from the family whose son Daniel Grootbloem, a freedom fighter, he murdered. He’s already obtained amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but tormented by his sins and afflicted with debilitating migraines, Coetzee enlists the help of local priest Father Dalton (Jeremy Crutchley) to find redemption.
Expectedly, his presence in Paternoster causes outrage, not least from Daniel’s feisty sister Sannie (Quanita Adams), brother Ernest (Christo Davids), his grief-stricken but stoical mother Magda (Denise Newman), who has remained indoors since his death, and father Hendrik (Isidingo‘s Zane Meas). Sannie summons Daniel’s one-time comrades Llwellyn, Zuko and Luke (Elton Landrew, Hugh Masebenza and Lionel Newton), and they set out for Paternoster to avenge his death.
”It’s based on several stories that came out of the Truth [and Reconciliation] Commission,” explains Gabriel, a veteran filmmaker who worked at Jo’burg’s Dorkay House, home of multicultural theatre, in the 1970s and 1980s, and with many jazz and theatre greats, including Barney Simon and Abdullah Ibrahim. A prolific commercial and documentary producer-director, he launched his own company, Giant Films, in 1995. Forgiveness is his debut feature film.
”I developed the idea three years ago and worked with Greg Latter on the script,” he says. ”All the characters are recovering in different ways.” The controverisal idea of ”easy justice” is explored. Has justice been done? It suggests that reconciliation is far more difficult, complex and courageous than just seeking revenge. Amnesty does not necessarily mean a purging or a healing.
”Making this film was exhilarating,” says Gabriel, ”not only because of the subject matter, but workshopping with the actors was tremendously beneficial.”
Developed by the DV8 project, in association with the National Film and Video Foundation, with a total budget of R6-million, the film was shot on high-definition digital video.
”It gave us a chance to develop the backstory and characters,” says Gabriel.
Having known Arnold Vosloo since the 1980s, Gabriel e-mailed him a script in the United States. The Mummy star loved it. ”It was a great casting coup to have a name actor,” says Gabriel.
From the first frame, Vosloo’s haunting presence commands our attention, his drooping moustache and heavy gait filling the screen with its sadness. Preparation for his role included losing weight, developing a reluctant lope and going unshaven. Fresh from his major Hollywood success in The Mummy franchise, ”Vosloo worked on it as a South African,” says Gabriel; he even took a rather substantial pay-cut.
Stylised, but never overwhelming, the cinematography is achingly beautiful, pausing now and again to linger over a tortured expression, or capture the wind in the reeds. Lars von Trier’s Zentropa company did the final mix of the evocative soundtrack in Sweden. The film’s fable-like quality might feel slightly stagnant to audiences looking for action but, rather than plot, the suspense is reliant on characters that defy stereotype but are still instantly recognisable within our South African landscape.
The Grootbloem family’s patriarch is a fisherman who relies on the grace of the tides for survival. The gaping hole in the family’s life left by Daniel’s death, begins to be filled, paradoxically, with the arrival of Coetzee. A classic anti-hero, Coetzee is ”someone who did the wrong thing in the wrong moment”, says Gabriel. There’s no judgement. He is also portrayed as a victim. ”I wanted the audience to feel empathy for him and for the family.”
The role of myth adds symbolism: ”From the freeing of birds, to shells being placed on a grave, the images are culturally non-specific,” according to Gabriel.
When there’s healing, abundant images of fish express release from the oppression of the past. ”It’s about impoverishment and rebirth,” he says, ”it’s not necessarily about political trauma — it could be any bereavement.” Gabriel was reminded of the loss of his mother during filming.
Emotional involvement, rather than intellectual understanding, is at the film’s core, with the focus on storytelling, not visual effect.
Already picked up for distribution internationally by Fortissimo Films, the film is being submitted to various festivals. Although a proudly South African product, a global star such as Vosloo may ensure international box office interest.
”I think some people will be surprised to see South Africans in this way,” says Gabriel. ”It’s not about race. I’m just telling stories.”
His next film, he says, is a ”film noir set at the turn of the century in South Africa”.
Gabriel believes that pent-up hatred denies not only the humanity of the perpetrator, but all humanity. He affirms that ”South Africa is the biggest proof that the miracle of forgiveness is possible.”
Without trying to be ”The Great South African Story”, Forgiveness succeeds in offering an intelligent, high-quality alternative to the escapist antics of the Leon Schuster school of local film. It is a meaningful tale of human journeys, from grief to healing, revenge to reconciliation and from emptiness to wholeness.