The Cinema of Jans Rautenbach

Abstract

THE ANGUISH OF A DREAMER: ABRAHAM (2014) AND THE CINEMA OF JANS RAUTENBACH Introduction: Rautenbach's cinemaA few pioneers in the Afrikaans film industry of the sixties produced a number of films that could be labelled "involved films". The theme of these films was an examination of the cracks in apartheid ideology. They included Emil Nofal-Jans Rautenbach's films like Die Kandidaat (The Candidate, 1968) and Katrina (1968). Several film historians regard Jans Rautenbach as the pioneer of modern, bold and South African filmmaking in the 1960s and 1970s. Together with producer Emil Nofal he made ground-breaking films during a time when South African cinema hardly reflected the socio-political realities of the country. Born in 1936 in Boksburg, Jansen Delarosa Rautenbach grew up in a very poor household. His father worked in the mines. He started his school years at a primary school in Boksburg. Early influences in his life...