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After hearing the news that the British are planning a scorched earth policy, Jan van Aswegen (Gys de Villiers), a respected Boer officer, decides to go back to his farm and protect his wife and children, rather than continue fighting in the war. This decision leads to dramatic events culminating in him and his sons being tried for high treason.
What we thought:
During the third phase of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1900 Lord Kitchener implemented a scorched earth policy – British troops swept across South Africa systematically destroying crops, slaughtering livestock, burning down homesteads and farms, poisoning wells, salting fields and putting women and children in concentration camps.
At the centre of Paul Eilers' Verraaiers
(Traitors) is the character of Jan van Aswegen (Gys de Villiers), a respected
Boer officer who takes a stand against continuing to fight for a dream that's no
longer attainable, a war that's already lost.
As with Roepman, Eilers tells a riveting story, not only of war, but of the women and children who are left behind to deal with loss and uncertainty on a daily basis.
De Villiers delivers the performance of his life as a man making the most difficult decision of his life, to be branded a traitor, and in the process complicating his relationship with his son and his son-in-law when his return home leads to their imprisonment, a trial and the harshest possible sentence.
His son is played by Viljé Maritz
(Binneland) who gives an honest and raw performance and the late Andrew
Thompson is brilliant as his son-in-law.
One can also appreciate Rika Sennett, who is heart wrenching as Jan's wife Gerda van Aswegen who slowly but surely loses her mind. Beate Olwagen is sincere as Martha, Deon Lotz methodical as General De La Rey and Jacques Bessenger believable as Scotsman Robert McLaughlin.
From the same team behind Roepman and inspired by true events from Albert Blake's book Boereverraaiers, Verraaiers is utterly captivating, world class and speaks to a universal audience.
