It’s so hard not to think of Sylvia Plath when you watch this heart-wrenching biopic of the
celebrated but deeply troubled South African poet Ingrid Jonker as both of then took their own lives at a young age. Plath was just 30 when she poisoned herself
in 1963, and Jonker drowned herself two years later when she was barely 31. Both women also had complex relationships
with their respective fathers, which contributed to their deep un-happiness.
Filmmaker Paula
Van der Oest’s fascinating profile opens on a glorious Cape Town beach
where Ingrid is struggling with the strong tides and is saved from drowning by
a handsome older stranger who turns out to be the novelist Jack Cape. When Jack discovers Ingrid’s identity he professes to be
a fan of her work, but very soon after that he starts an affair with her (he
already has a wife and two children) and is quickly declaring his love too.
Ingrid, recently separated from her husband after a
very short marriage has a two year old daughter, also falls heavily for Jack
but she soon engineers the first of many break-up’s with one of her frequent emotional
flare ups when Jack fails to responds to all of her demands. Ingrid’s irrationality and her highly-strung
nature are not so much about attention seeking but her very desperate and real need
to be loved. Yet when pregnant with
Jack’s child she secretly takes herself to a back street abortionist without telling a soul.
When Jack won't give her the attention she wants
Ingrid doesn't hesitate in finding another man/men who will, including the newly
married novelist Eugene Maritz. He, like Jack, will also end up telling the
highly demanding Ingrid ‘you drain me!’ Despite
her ambivalence, it is Jack that stands by her one way or another, and it is he
that rescues her work from one of the several Mental Institutions she has been
confined in, and brings it home to edit it all into what will eventually become
her award winning book of Poetry that really establishes her literary
reputation
Ingrid's father had divorced her mother before she had
been born, and she was only 10 years old when her mother died and her father that
she never knew took her, and her sister, to live with him and his 3rd
wife and their children where they were treated like strangers. Mr. Jonkers was a leading rightwing racist Member
of Parliament, and even though when Ingrid grew up and her politics where at
the totally opposite end of the scale, she never stopped trying to win his love
and/or approval. There is one very
poignant scene when she pleads with her father to read her latest poem ‘The Child That Was Shot Dead’ about an
outrageous incident she had witnessed but he in real anger just rips the paper to
shreds. He takes her in to give her a
roof over her head when she was homeless even though he hates her (‘you are a
slut’ he shouts) but in the end he gets his revenge by agreeing that the latest
Mental Institution that she has been confined can give her electric shack
treatment which finally breaks her spirit.
These were turbulent times in South Africa and the
black majority were still being kept in their place by the white Afrikaner’s
and her vehement opposition to apartheid greatly affected Ingrid and her
work. It’s rather fitting that many years later Nelson Mandela
chose to read the same poem that had once so incensed Ingrid’s father. The date was 1994, and the occasion was the
Opening of the first Democratically Elected Parliament in South Africa. It's a
fitting tribute to the passionate eloquent prose of a woman whose legacy lasted
longer than her short life.
I will totally put my hands up at admitting that I had
never even heard of Ms. Jonkers until I caught sight of this movie. In it she is stunningly played by Dutch
actress Carice van Houten who strikes such a fine balance of a troubled soul that
could still pour out this remarkable work. The
poems themselves that are quoted throughout the work are exceptionally moving
and will make you want to read more.
Tough and sad story: beautifully told.
★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★
