From rural naïveté to urban discontent: Framing post-apartheid South African film identities

Abstract

Abstract This article re-examines the dynamic space–place relationships (the urban–rural, insider–outsider, conflict–love plot) in post-apartheid South African cinema with a special emphasis on the representation of white Afrikaner identity. Theories related to this argument were first systematically devised by Keyan Tomaselli in his studies of Afrikaans-language films made between 1965 and 1980. Similarly, the authors analyse the ‘structural basis of the images and recurring motifs reflected in local South African cinema’ in a sample of films made between 1994 and 2014. Johannesburg and Cape Town have gained various guises through vernacular urban narratives set within the gangster and crime genre, such as Jerusalema, Cold Harbour and Four Corners, whilst the rural landscape is explored extensively in Afrikaans romance films such as Platteland, Vrou Soek Boer and Leading Lady. The authors argue that the filmic representations of the rural and urban landscapes reflect the various kinds of South African identities as imagined by the director. The authors conclude that as illustrated by the case studies, whilst most of the Afrikaans films of the last twenty years represent a yearning for the ‘innocent pastoral years’ of their ancestors, there are exceptions to the rule, such as Katinka Heyns’ film, Paljas.