Martin Botha's film blog

 
Talented young filmmaker Chris dos Santos' short film AT THY CALL will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

At Thy Call is one of the few films from South Africa that examines young men's experiences of the border war in our recent history.

South Africa, 1984. Every white male from the age of 16 that has completed high school is conscripted into the South African National Defence force to answer their call of "National Service". Danie Joubert is a young and proud Afrikaner who's family name is well respected in the army due to his older brothers previous accomplishments at the Battle of Cassinga. Danie proves to his corporal (who is a hardcore racist), that he is a great leader, that he has pride to defend his country, but it is only when Danie meets Nick, a rebelious Englishman, who doesn't believe a word the army says, that Danie starts to question which side of the fence he should be on.

Dos Santos provides a fine historical context and his analysis of the dominant culture of the time is quite remarkable.

Hopefully our national film commission will support him to go to Cannes!