IN MY COUNTRY
UK, 2005, 105 minutes, Colour.
Samuel L. Jackson, Juliet Binoche, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi Ngubane.
Directed by John Boorman.
It is a pity that this film had troubled production and delays and has not had a wide release. It is not the best film about South Africa but it has something to say and gives audiences worldwide an opportunity to see and hear something about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
The screenplay is based on a book by the journalist, Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull. She covered the hearings for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Her story is also autobiographical fiction, a portrait of her Afrikaaner upbringing with its inherent dominance and prejudices, a picture of her marriage and an affair with a fellow journalist and the need for confession, honesty and reconciliation in her own life. She is played with her customary sensitivity and intensity by Juliette Binoche.
The American journalist is played by Samuel L. Jackson, a reporter for the Washington Post, who arrives in South Africa with a strong bias, even prejudice against whites and Afrikaaners, drawing on his own experience of American racist attitudes. He is outspoken and initially clashes with Anna and her African assistant. This gives the opportunity for the screenplay to dramatise the issues underlying apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation hearings.
While the film gives a lot of its attention to the relationship between the two journalists, the back story in Washington has been cut (and can be seen in the deleted scenes on the DVD). This gives a priority to Anna’s story, her response to her family, to the hearings (including emotional breakdown) and to acceptance of guilt and responsibility. The affair seems dramatically contrived, although it actually happened. But, it gives the opportunity for Anna’s mother to reveal secrets from her own past and urge Anna to be truthful to her injured husband.
What makes the most impact, of course, is the work of the Commission itself. Several witnesses tell their harrowing stories of disappearances, of torture and of murders. Anna’s broadcasts lead to several further witnesses coming forward and giving information which leads to the pathos of recovered corpses and the knowledge of further murders.
There is also a dramatic motif throughout the film as the Washington journalist conducts a series of interviews with one of the police officers (Brendan Gleeson) who is unrepentant about the role he played and the torture and killings he administered. Other officers come forward during the hearings to testify that they were politically motivated and following orders thus enabling them to receive amnesty.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was based on the principle that all South Africans were interconnected and that forgiveness and atonement were more important than vengeance.
In My Country was directed in South African locations by John Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance, Emerald Forest, Excalibur, Hope and Glory).
1.The South African setting, time, place? South African history? Apartheid and the fall of apartheid? World opinion about South Africa?
2.The background of apartheid, moral responsibility, policing, atrocities, the records? The post-apartheid reaction? For blacks, for Afrikaaners? For South Africans in general? The Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
3.The filming in South Africa, locations, the Orange Free State and the farms, the towns and the townships, homes, churches and schools? The musical score?
4.The title, the original book being Country of My Skull? The poems quoted in the screenplay?
5.The quote from Nelson Mandela? Information given to the audience, statistics, the perspective of the screenwriter?
6.Anna’s story, her perspective, based on a true story, the journalist’s work? Her attitude towards apartheid, her own family, relationship, especially with Langston Whitfield? Her father, her brother, her mother and the revelation about her relationship with the poet in the 1950s? Her mother urging her to tell the truth? Seeing her father’s attitude towards Langston? Her brother, the photos from the past, the bonds between the two, him shooting himself? The personal story?
7.The background of Anna, her Christmas visit to her family, the tensions about her reporting, her husband, the children? The impact of the affair? Her telling her husband the truth?
8.Langston and his story, in the United States, a black reporter, prejudice, his judgments on Africans, especially Afrikaaners? His initially being assertive? More empathy, having to learn? His relationship with his paper, with his wife, son? The interviews and his listening to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? The confrontation with de Jager and this motif throughout the film? His relationship with Anna, the affair? His return home? A future?
9.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission? The minister in charge, the other members of the bench? The explanation of the amnesty, the motivation, black Africans and their forgiveness after the reconciliation? White police and their admitting the truth, the political motivation? The belief that all lives were interconnected? The stories being told at the commission, the emotional telling of the stories, especially by the widows and mothers? The response of the board, of the reporters? The mothers, the old man and the boy with him, Anderson and his fulfilling the traditions?
10.Anna and her broadcast work, with Dumi, the friendship, the studio? The effect on Anna herself, the information she gave, the impact on her listeners? Leading to more information, the finding of the body of the girl on the hillside and her being raped? Her mother listening? The discussions about rape at the table, the white guests and their wanting to leave? Rape as a political weapon?
11.Anna and the effect, her emotional reactions, weeping, breakdown? The collaboration with Dumi? The initial encounter with Langston, his questions, his hostility towards her, her answers? Her being forced to be near him? The connections, the social encounters? Her attempts at explanations? Her suffering, weeping, the collapse and his supporting her? Her desperate need for affection, the affair? The bond? The car breaking down, the three in the room – and Dumi drunk, the jokes about past sex crimes? Her taking Langston to meet her parents, the mother’s gift of the book, the father and his rudeness? Her attitudes, her wanting to accept the responsibility of guilt?
12.Langston, as a character, his interactions, prejudice, the black perspective, the American perspective? The comparisons being made between American blacks and South African blacks? His hard-hitting article, Anna’s reaction? The drinking, the learning, the breakdown, the three in the bed, the affair, his visit to Anna’s family, the gift of the book, his reading it on the plane home?
13.Langston and his interviews with de Jager, de Jager symbolising the atrocities? The comparisons with the other police in the courtrooms, their confessions, breakdown – especially the police officer who had killed the boy’s parents, confronting the boy, his weeping, offering him money for education? The boy embracing him? De Jager and the police, the harsh stances, the National Security and the violence? The language of terrorism and war? His antagonism towards Langston? Langston wanting to walk out, the revelation of the farm, the torture implements, the discovery of the corpse? His going to trial, his not being given amnesty because of the proportion of violence that he executed? His information about Anna’s brother, her confrontation of him, his shooting himself?
14.The revelation of the truth, the violence and the descriptions of torture? Murder?
15.The credibility of the affair between Anna and Langston, his marital background and his son, her husband and family – especially in the light of her visits home and her being with her children, her husband? The affair becoming a symbol of deceit, cover-up? Her mother persuading her to tell the truth – truth and reconciliation?
16.A film of the 1990s? Focusing on the future of South Africa? Its place in the world?
17.The ending, the recitation of the poetry – and the visualising of the landscapes and The Country of My Skull?
