Kronieken van Zuid-Afrika

About this book

Kronieken van Zuid-Afrika: de films van Manie van Rensburg (1997) is the first book on the oeuvre of a South African film director during the country's 112 year film history. Throughout his television and film dramas, director Manie van Rensburg exhibited the same thematic pre-occupations, the same recurring motifs and incidents and basically the same visual style. His work explored the psyche of the Afrikaner within an historical as well as a contemporary context. He is preoccupied with communication problems between people, especially within love relationships. The outsider is a dominant figure in his universe. By studying Van Rensburg's oeuvre over the past years, one realises that he is probably South Africa's most prominent auteur director. Themes that Van Rensburg tends to portray in his chronicles are: the psyche of the Afrikaner in a contemporary or historic situation (especially the period from the 1920s to the 1940s); the way of life of, and motivation for, individuals living on the 'edge' of society; loneliness; and the exploration of the communication potential of film and television to convey contextual and experiential information to the viewer. Within these themes Van Rensburg experiments with particular filmic codes not seen in the work of his contemporaries.