Forgiveness

"You don't want to be forgiven. You want to be punished!" is yelled at ex-cop Tertius Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo, The Mummy) during one of many fiery clashes with the family of Daniel, a young black man Tertius admitted to killing during South Africa's Apartheid. In Forgiveness, the first feature directed by Ian Gabriel, a difficult subject is explored objectively from both sides where there are no easy answers.

Coetzee has travelled to the small fishing village of Paternoster and, with the aid of a local priest, Father Dalton and under the immunity of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he attempts to explain himself to the Grootboom family. The colours of the film are muted and washed out. There's very little life left in this fishing village where the catch gets smaller each year and the only way forward may be for the locals to sell their homes to wealthy white people to use as holiday shacks.

As Coetzee, Vosloo depicts a once strong, powerful man weighed down by his own conscience, kept awake by nightmares of torture and determined to face his guilt. But it is the performance of Quanita Adams as the sister of Daniel that stands out. Her anger at this stranger who has come to her house is deftly handled, and the journey she takes from there is beautifully realised.

Forgiveness rates 3 1/2 stars.