François van Heerden has everything under control. The forty-something runs a successful timber store in Bloemfontein. He has a beautiful house, a sweet wife, successful children – in other words he has all the status a conservative Afrikaner could want. Occasionally he drives to a remote farm and stays away for the night, but no one needs to know what really goes on there.
When he meets 23-year-old Christian at his daughter’s wedding, the foundations under his respectable life turn out to be less than stable. The attractive apparition he sees in Christian won’t let François go.
With Beauty, the young South African director Oliver Hermanus proves that his powerful debut Shirley Adams (2009) was not a one-hit wonder. His balanced, nerve-wracking second feature is about suppressed desires, ingrained thoughts and the strange leaps people make when their convictions are set adrift. Beauty was the first film spoken in Afrikaans to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
Please note: this film is subtitled in Dutch and French
Film details
- Countries of production
- France, South Africa
- Year
- 2011
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 99'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
