A mixed-race couple takes to the road when their shanty is demolished. Laden with a bizarre collection of thrown-out objects they come, at last, to the desolate mudflats of the Swartkops River and set up a makeshift home. Boesman, savage and bitter, has grown up thinking of himself as white man's rubbish. Lena, the target of his brutality, refuses to believe that she is worthless. This gritty film, the earlier of two adaptations of Athol Fugard's famous play (this one starring Fugard himself), depicts a world in which every movement is monitored, controlled, and regulated, and every small privilege hard-won and precious - a world in which any kind of freedom is a valuable commodity.
BOESMAN AND LENA
by Ross Devenish
1973, 102 minutes, 35mm
Director: Ross Devenish
Writer: Athol Fugard
Stars: Yvonne Bryceland (Lena), Val Donald-Bell and Athol Fugard (Boesman)
Country: South Africa
Language: English
Runtime: 102 min
Sound Mix: Mono
Color: Color
Filming Locations: Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Production:
Bluewater Productions
Distributors
- Fiction Film & Television Limited
- New Yorker Films (1976) (USA)