Hollywood goes Afrikaans

The production of the film Die Windpomp is a giant leap forward in Afrikaans filmmaking because it represents a rather odd goal set by its American producer, Chris Roland (Stander, Hotel Rwanda). From the beginning, even though he did not speak a word of Afrikaans, with the exception of “’n Boer maak ‘n plan”, Roland wanted to make an Afrikaans film that was going to be highly entertaining and also respect the Afrikaans community.

Roland struggled to get the right story till he met Die Windpomp’s writer/director Etienne Fourie while guest lecturing at AFDA film school. Fourie was in his fourth and final year and was developing the short version of Die Windpomp as his graduate film, a thesis for filmmakers.

“After watching it, I told AFDA’s owner Garth Holmes there and then that I wanted to option the story and develop it into a feature length film,” Roland explained.

Asked if he found it difficult developing the script in a language he did not understand, Roland explained that Fourie wrote drafts in both Afrikaans and English.

“The hard part was grappling with certain words and expressions that meant one thing in English and had a whole other meaning in Afrikaans. I had to learn how Afrikaans people think as much as how they speak. Afrikaans is a very expressive language, more so than English,” Roland elaborated.

During the production, Roland said he was able to follow the dialogue because he knew the story and he knew that acting was more than words. “Good acting is about subtext. The spoken word is less important than the character’s intention and emotional state. That becomes so much clearer when watching a film in a language you don’t understand. It made watching the performances on set, very engaging.”

What is Roland’s next film? Dias Santana, an action film set in Angola and South Africa and shot in Portuguese, English, Xhosa and Afrikaans. “That’s going to be a real brain buster!” Die Windpomp releases nationwide in South Africa April 25.