This is a deceptively simple and yet charming movie about a bright young girl kept out of school by her strict father in a remote South African village in the desert. The young Abrina Bosman, not a professional actress but simply a member of the community of Riemvasmaak, delivers an astonishing portrayal of the kid yearning to learn more. A new teacher (played by the only professional, Renate Schuurman) discovers by accident the talent of the young girl. She decides to walk 15 km every day to teach the girl in the veld without her father knowing. Darrel Roodt directs his first movie (subtitled in English) in Afrikaans, the language of the coloured community of Riemvasmaak, with a sensitivity relating to his better work, like Yesterday, Faith's corner and Cry the beloved country. He (and his cinematographer) capture wonderfully the beauty of the austere landscape - flat stoned hills and sand flats, and incorporate real members of the community in smaller parts to sketch a very realistic feel of the community. He never bogs down in sentimentality, yet make you feel every moment for the people (including the severe father who has to cling to the only way he know how to survive their severe life). It is a very significant expansion in Roodt's works which reveals various ways of life in South Africa, from the urban to remote rural parts.
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