(Crystal Donna Roberts in “Krotoa”. Pic by Uwe Jansch)
Something of a limited, plodding affair
with a number of stagey sequences. (Review: Patrick Compton - 6)
It’s good that South African cinema is
increasingly capturing this country’s often hidden or at least shadowy history.
And this movie, about a woman whom many see as the mother of the Coloured
people, is particularly welcome.
It has to be said, however, that Roberta
Durrant’s 122-minute movie is something of a limited, plodding affair with a
number of stagey sequences that have the look of a school history pageant about
them. Rarely do we get the sense of a believably vibrant Cape Colony
experiencing a clash of civilisations between the colonising Dutch and the
indigenous Khoi peoples. Perhaps this is the result of a limited budget.
Nevertheless, the movie’s material is
important and the film should at least end up serving as an educational tool
for schoolchildren.
The life of Krotoa (1643-74), a Khoi woman
who served as a translator and mediator between the Dutch and the Khoi, has
only been historically accounted for in the diaries of the Dutch settlers, with
all the inbuilt bias that implies. So it is good to see that the balance has
been restored by Margaret Goldsmid and Kaye Williams who say their script is
“inspired” by what they believe to be the historical facts.
The film’s main focus is on the complex
relationship between Krotoa (well played by Crystal-Donna Roberts as an adult
and Charis Williams as a young girl) and the Dutch governor of the Cape, Jan
van Riebeeck (Armand Aucamp). The latter is a largely sympathetic figure, with
one devastating exception, and it is he who enables Krotoa to wield
considerable influence in the political life of the colony.
But this elevation comes at a price as
Krotoa is fatally scarred by her mediating role: the Khoi regard her as a
traitor to her people while the Dutch – particularly after Van Riebeeck returns
home and a more conservative governor takes over – increasingly despise her.
Although she marries a local surgeon and explorer (Jacques Bessenger) and bears
him three children, she increasingly finds herself alienated by both
communities. Ultimately Krotoa, named Eva by the Dutch, suffers a tragic fate
that was always likely in such a harshly divided community where all the power
lies with the invaders.
Krotoa’s life remains a hugely important one,
not least in the history of the Coloured peoples. There are wider themes as
well, which have recurred throughout the country’s history and its periods of
colonisation by the Dutch and the British, namely the contentious issues of
land and cattle, as well as the destructive and disdainful attitudes of the
colonisers towards the indigenous people.
It’s a pity that the film couldn’t have
been better, with the script allowing Roberts as well as the other actors
little scope to create rounded characters, while the cinematography is
unexceptional bar occasional dramatic shots of the pounding surf that serve as
one of the film’s metaphors. The most vivid metaphor, however, is the occasion
when Krotoa is raped, a brutal event that changes her life and suggests with
ruthless economy the nature of colonisation.
Krotoa opened in Durban on August 4. – (Patrick Compton)
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