DIE WONDERWERKER (2012): with Dawid Minnaar, Elize Cawood, Marius Weyers, Anneke Weideman, Kaz McFadden, Sandra Kotzé and Cobus Rossouw, directed by Katinka Heyns. Rating: *** ½ out of **** stars. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
An absorbing, moving and excellent period drama - filmed on rugged, magnificent rural locations - which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend to discerning cinema goers.
Like "Roepman", "Jerusalema" and "Tsotsi", Katinka Heyns' "Die Wonderwerker" is one of the best South Africans films I have seen yet.
Beautifully photographed, and sensitively and passionately directed by Katinka Heyns ("Paljas", "Die Storie van Klara Viljee") from a finely detailed script by her husband Chris Barnard, it is, in my opinion, world class fare. An affecting Dawid Minnaar is marvelous as the famous (in South Africa) Afrikaans poet, naturalist, writer and morphine addict Eugene Marais and the entire cast is very good, but Elize Cawood is absolutely outstanding and is likely to garner many local awards.
This is the second South African film about Eugene Marais - Athol Fugard played him in the fine, award winning, Ross Devenish-directed 1977 movie, "The Guest" (An Episode in the Life of Eugene Marais). "Die Wonderwerker", however, is a far superior film to "The Guest".
An absorbing, moving and excellent period drama - filmed on rugged, magnificent rural locations - which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend to discerning cinema goers.
Like "Roepman", "Jerusalema" and "Tsotsi", Katinka Heyns' "Die Wonderwerker" is one of the best South Africans films I have seen yet.
Beautifully photographed, and sensitively and passionately directed by Katinka Heyns ("Paljas", "Die Storie van Klara Viljee") from a finely detailed script by her husband Chris Barnard, it is, in my opinion, world class fare. An affecting Dawid Minnaar is marvelous as the famous (in South Africa) Afrikaans poet, naturalist, writer and morphine addict Eugene Marais and the entire cast is very good, but Elize Cawood is absolutely outstanding and is likely to garner many local awards.
This is the second South African film about Eugene Marais - Athol Fugard played him in the fine, award winning, Ross Devenish-directed 1977 movie, "The Guest" (An Episode in the Life of Eugene Marais). "Die Wonderwerker", however, is a far superior film to "The Guest".