Cinema
Dust
Marion Hänsel · 1985
Synopsis
An isolated farm in the Cape province of South Africa. Magda, an ageing, lonely spinster, lives in the service of a domineering father who meets her only with coldness and indifference. The arrival of a new servant upsets the order of the house and unleashes jealousy. Everything passes through Magda's gaze, and one never knows where what happens ends or where what she imagines begins.
Context
The film adapts a novel by J. M. Coetzee published in 1977. Co-produced by France and Belgium, and shot in English in Spain, it brings together Jane Birkin as Magda and Trevor Howard as the father, with cinematography by Walther van den Ende. Critics saw it as a very inward-looking film, attentive to the power relations between father and daughter, between the sexes, and between the colonists and those who work for them.
Who it is for
Eighty-eight minutes, in English. A harrowing chamber piece, carried by the voice of a woman who is coming apart.
Prizes and reception
Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1985, and submitted by Belgium for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
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