Promised Land

Some of the most interesting post apartheid features deal with the response of the (white) Afrikaner community to the new democratic South Africa. One of the most powerful features since 1994 deals with an estranged Afrikaner community of white supremacists. In stark (almost black and white images) Promised Land depicts a desperate minority who, trying to retain their apartheid ideologies in the face of a new, democratic South Africa, have retreated into self-inflicted isolation and marginalization. Brilliantly shot by Giulio Biccarri on Sony's new HD format and masterly edited by Ronelle Loots the film could become one of South Africa's international breakthroughs. When I saw Promised Land for the first time, one realizes again that there has been a bifurcation within (white) Afrikaner culture. There is a clear split between the 'old' and the 'new'. Contemporary Afrikaners have been forced to make a choice after 1994. To choose between racial separation and assimilation and to acknowledge all the ideological ramifications that comes with that decision. Promised Land depicts both sides of this equation. It portrays the death of one era and the birth of another. In doing so Promised Land depicts the advocates of sparest ideology quite cruelly.