Black Butterflies to hit cinemas on 21 October

The film stars Carice van Houten as Ingrid Jonker and is directed by Paula van der Oest.

“The death of poets sends a dark tone ringing out over the world. Of all the children of man they are the strangest, the most beloved, disturbing and beyond reach. To all times the holy ones. They are not buried with their bodies, but remain to shake and confuse us, to awaken the living, their language universal; and among these Ingrid Jonker.”
A Crown of Wild Olive, Jack Cope, 1966

When Nelson Mandela read Ingrid Jonker’s Die Kind wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga (The Child shot by soldiers at Nyanga) during his first address in the new South African parliament on 24 May 24, 1994, he called her, “...an Afrikaner woman who transcended a particular experience and became a South African, an African and a citizen of the world,” adding that “she was both a poet and a South African. She was both an Afrikaner and an African. She was both an artist and a human being. In the midst of despair, she celebrated hope. Confronted by death, she asserted the beauty of life.”

For an in-depth analysis of the film, you can read a review by COUP magazine here.

Black Butterflies - at cinemas 21 October.