The story is raw and shocking, yet reflective of a place, a time and people, all a real part of SA’s history. Probably a time and a place most people would rather turn a blind eye to, but one which director Michael Raeburn has captured in living colour to honour the communities which exist across South Africa. This film is based on the book by Marlene van Niekerk and won best film in South Africa in 2008. It is now the first Afrikaans film to be released internationally, in London, this May.
The place is Triomf, a suburb outside Johannesburg, and the people are the Benades, a white trash hillbilly family with all sorts of oddities and crazy antics, from drunken behaviour to bizarre cases of incest, living in a lower class suburb surrounded by intriguing characters. It’ll get you giggling with some classic reminders of SA ‘in the day’ including a Spur waitress miming the menu!
Uncle Treppie is the main theatrically-expressive character who instigates near all in the film’s four day unfolding ahead of the first democratic election and the 21st birthday of his seemingly dim-witted and uneducated nephew Lambert. The story is partly a portal in time as well as an insight into a social class of South Africans not often caught on screen. As South Africans we owe it to ourselves to piece together our country’s past from an array of sources so as to understand even a smidgen of what went on. Culminating in a terrible family secret being blurted out, followed as fast by an ending as shocking and unexpected as the entire film itself, Triomf leaves you with plenty to think about. This is vital and hilarious armchair viewing without the need to get your nails dirty.
