Boesman and Lena (2000)

Intense love and hate bring a man and woman through personal tragedy.

Director:

John Berry

Writers:

Athol Fugard (play), John Berry (adaptation)

Stars:

Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Willie Jonah

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Danny Glover	...	Boesman
Angela Bassett	...	Lena
Willie Jonah	...	Old Man
Graham Weir	...	Recycle man
Anton Stoltz	...	Farmer

Storyline

On a cold afternoon during the Apartheid era, an aging "Brown" couple arrive at the Swartkops mud flat near Cape Town. They are scavengers rousted out of their shanty town that morning by Afrikaners. They've walked all day carrying what they possess. She may be alcoholic, he's prone to anger: earlier that day, he beat her for something she didn't do. Over the next 12 or 15 hours, their relationship goes through a storm, partly as each remembers earlier events both happy and tragic, and because Lena, over Boesman's objections, takes into their camp an elderly Xhosa tribesman, a Black. Boesman is cruel to the old man, she is kind, and as rain heads toward them, a confrontation develops.

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Plot Keywords:

independent film | based on play | character name in title

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Kino International

Country:

South Africa France

Language:

English Afrikaans

Release Date:

4 April 2001 (France)

Also Known As:

Boesman & Lena

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$11,684 (USA) (3 November 2000)

Gross:

$32,148 (USA) (15 December 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pathé Image Production, Primedia Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Boesman and Lena (1973)

User Reviews

When you have fallen into a pit, the edge of the ground is your horizon.

An absorbing (although repetitive and rather didactic) analysis of exploitation and despair in a situation where there is no way forward or up, where the attempts to make yourself feel better by violating and putting down whoever is below you seems to be the only option. But even here, in this desolate wasteland of lost dreams and no future, that does not work, and reaching out to something or someone to comfort and share with, a simple act of charity, gives some reward, even if it just makes the present bearable by reviving memories of the past.

Although there is little actual on screen violence, this is a harsh and brutal film about the small mindedness of oppression (politically and personally) that does not make for easy entertainment. Clearly based on a play, with a small cast, a broader more expansive relation to the general social and political environment would possibly have helped the film to reach a wider audience.