ENG/AFR: white masculinity in two contemporary South African films

Abstract

This article considers the portrayal of white masculinity in two contemporary South African feature films, its socio-political implications and relation to histories of white identity. These films’ protagonists are middle-aged white South African men, both educated, privileged and financially stable, both of whom make sexual choices that are seen as deviant, with damaging consequences. Oliver Hermanus’ Skoonheid (2011) is the story of Francois, a married Afrikaans man whose secret homosexual desires lead to obsession and crisis, while Barry Berk’s Sleeper’s Wake (2012) follows the bereaved John Wraith as he embarks on an affair with a troubled teenage neighbour. I use these films’ portrayals of white men of a certain status and age to draw comparisons between current manifestations of Afrikaans and white English-speaking South African, or WESSA, masculinity. I contrast the way in which Skoonheid is deeply embedded in a sense of Afrikaans culture to the way in which Sleeper’s Wake is largely denuded of ethnic or cultural identity, and use these placements to discuss the larger effects of the functional invisibility of WESSA identity in post-apartheid South Africa.