Two young South Africans from differing cultural backgrounds embark on a
taboo relationship.
Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Salmon de Jager
Starring: Nicola Breytenbach, Andrew Govender, Leleti
Khumalo, Deon Lotz, Mangesh Desai, Paul Eilers
It was Jean-Luc Godard who suggested that the only plot devices absolutely
essential to movie narrative were ‘a girl and a gun’. No doubt this
reduction has proved to be a workable maxim for countless films, but even
more successful is the trope which swaps the gun for another alliterative
noun: guy. The representation of romance and coupling in art is one that is
inexhaustible, as, being an aspect that defines our humanity, it is a
feature that most relate to in some fashion or another; love is the great
unanswered. Whether it is the aspirational wish fulfilment of rom-coms, or
thrilling plot points predicated on infidelity, narrative conflict drawn
from relationships (romantic or otherwise) drives modern cinema (come on,
even in
Batman V Superman, Superman’s sole motivation seems to be rescuing Lois). Taking its
inspiration from Shakespearean tragedy, Salmon de Jager’s
Free State is a movie about a girl and a guy, a star crossed
couple whose partnership is subject to the prejudices and expectations of a
society that does not recognise love in the same fervent way that it
observes cultural tradition. And, as well as a girl and a guy, for poignant
measure, Free State’s scenario even throws in a few guns too…
We’re in Africa in 1979 and beauteous Jeanette (Nicola Breytenbach)
is leaving college, travelling home to the ‘free state’ to see her pastor
dad (Deon Lotz) and maybe her soldier fiancé, who is due home from a
tour of duty abroad. White Jeanette is as thoughtful as she is naïve; the
film is told in flashback, and her opening voiceover combines with real life
images of apartheid as she states that she has ‘come to doubt the values of
the people’ with whom she has spent her life with.
Meanwhile, in the city of Newcastle (KwaZulu-Natal), Hindu Ravi (Andrew Govender) is about to enter into an arranged marriage, but following a meet cute
with homeward bound Jeanette (whose natty VW has hit a flat - classic meet
cute!), it seems that his heart is about to take a different direction. They
both like the same films (Star Wars and, more ominously,
Love Story), and Ravi is such a nice fella that he throws state sanctioned caution to
the wind and drives Jeanette home.
The first snag in their blossoming relationship occurs when they reach
Jeanette’s home late in the evening. Ravi, a ‘coolie’ in the racist parlance
reserved for people of Indian origin, is not welcome in the province where
Jeanette lives. It is, in fact, illegal for him to be there after dark, as a
patrolling police officer takes officious delight in telling him. It’s a
prejudice that the film suggests works both ways, as poor Jeanette
regretfully discovers, when, trying to pay it forward, Ravi’s mum viciously
chews her out for bringing a gift of beef to a vegetarian Hindu household.
Star crossed, indeed.
The cinematography of Free State made me wish I was seeing it
on the biggest screen possible; the technicolor vistas are simply too big
and beautiful for home viewing. Furthermore, when Jeanette and her White
friends speak, their language musically dips from English to the sprightly
glottal rhythms of Afrikaans, and we see the Hindu rituals of Ravi’s family
enacted in respectful montage: this Africa should be a paradise, a
multicultural utopia of all creed and colour. But there are many snakes in
this garden; the racist cops who think Ravi is part of an underground
resistance, the gun toting family of Ravi’s fiancé, the ‘invisible wall’ of
apartheid. ‘What is this’, Ravi asks of the illicit relationship, ‘I don’t
know, but it’s not for us to decide’, Jeanette replies, as their love begins
its journey towards inevitable tragedy.
Free State is on Amazon Prime Video
UK/ROI now.