| Proteus
Blank works alongside a Dutch sailor, Rijkhaart Jacobsz, who is serving time for sodomy. Despite mutual prejudices, the two prisoners are strongly attracted to each other and begin a tentative affair, accidentally witnessed by Tyne. Their affair transgresses vast cultural taboos, and unleashes confused feelings of desire and jealosy that neither have a name for. Tyne returns to Amsterdam in pursuit of his protea schemes. A decade passes, and the prison autorities continue to ignore the ongoing 'friendship' of Blank and Jacobsz. Then Tyne returns to the Cape, fleeing a sodomy scandal in Amsterdam, where 70 men (including his partner Ouerns) were tried and executed in the city square. His return is catastrophic, inadvertently triggering the arrest of Blank and Jacobsz on sodomy charges. Tyne makes a desparate intervention to the court, intent on saving Blank, but the herder refuses to play along. When he received news of the destruction of his family in commando raid Blank tells the truth. For the first time he names his feelings for the Dutch sailor. Directors: Jack Lewis, John Greyson |
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In 1725, a young Khoi herder Class Blank is sentenced to hard labour on Robben Island, Cape Town's penal colony. The prison garden is run by Vigil Tyne, an English botanist who is naming and cultivating South African protea species for the European market. Tyne is entranced by the quick-witted Blank, and the youth soon finds ways to manipulate the repressed botanist, exchaning native lore for guilders and favours.
