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Jonker's life coming to SA big screen

Cape Town - The life of South African poet Ingrid Jonker has locally only been examined through a documentary by Helena Nogueira entitled Ingrid Jonker, Her Lives and Time, released in 2001.

Now, Dutch filmmaker Paula van der Oest and producer Arry Voorsmit have released the film Black Butterflies – a biopic of Jonker’s life. Van der Oest and Voorsmit took notice of Jonker in 1994 when former South African president Nelson Mandela honoured her during his first speech in parliament by reading on of her poems entitled The Child.

The film, which opens on October 21 in South African cinemas, required eight years of research and planning.

Fragile life

The screenplay was penned by South African Greg Latter and is based on the diaries of writer Jack Cope, with whom Jonker had a passionate relationship. His diaries, along with Jonker’s papers and journals, are kept safe in the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown.

Film critic Paul Boekkooi notes that the film is still not able to fully unfurl "the secrets surrounding the persona of our immortal and greatest poets".

Van der Oest focuses on Jonker’s fragile life, on the inevitability of her fate of which she ultimately had no control over. It is a balanced film, and therefore it is not sensationalist – providing the viewer with sufficient information about the poet’s life, writes Boekkooi.

Dutch actress Carice van Houten, best known for her role as a wartime spy in Black Book, was honoured wit the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for her portrayal of Jonker. Her performance envelops Jonker’s extremes, writes Boekkooi, "from her fearless rebelliousness to her vulnerability and hunger for acceptance".

Black Butterflies’ biggest shortcoming for Afrikaans speakers is also the film’s Achilles' heel: the fact that Afrikaans is entirely omitted from the film, writes Boekkooi.

The movie also stars Rutger Hauer as Ingrid's father Abraham Jonker, Liam Cunningham as her lover Jack Cope and SA actor Grant Swanby as Jan Rabie.

Watch the trailer of Black Butterflies here:


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