‘Some demons never die’
Peacock is a 2022 South African horror film about the psychosexual journey of a young woman into the dark recesses of the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past.
Directed by Jaco Minnaar from a screenplay co-written with David Cornwell. Produced by David Cornwell, Dumi Gumbi and Catharina Weinek.
The Ergo Company production stars Tarryn Wyngaard, Johan Botha, Ruan Wessels, Alida Theron, Liza Van Deventer, Nicola Hanekom and Andre Stolz.
Plot:
Anna Pohl (Tarryn Wyngaard) has grown up in an institutionalised space: a puritanical, Calvinist organisation known simply as The Foundation. Their mission is to provide a place of ‘righteous innocence’ for young women – to allow them to develop away from the ‘corruptions’ of the outside world. When Anna transgresses The Foundation’s strict moral standards, she is sent away to care for one of its founding members, Sarel Cilliers (Johan Botha), an Apartheid-era theologian now ailing on his isolated farm.
Anna’s first night away from The Foundation is spent at the house of her supervisor, Doctor Basson (Alida Theron). Basson is an old friend of Sarel’s, and acts as a ‘go-between’ figure, bringing him medication and supplies from town. Anna also meets the doctor’s grandson, Jean (Ruan Wessels), and the seeds of a strange and unlikely friendship are sown when she follows him out of the house to watch a performance at a drag bar.
Meeting Sarel on the farm the next day, Anna learns that his previous carer left suddenly – perhaps spooked by Sarel’s declining mental state, which sees him hallucinating and acting erratically. His lavish yet run-down farmhouse is a mess: the natural effects of neglect, as well as countless archive boxes that lie around the rooms. These boxes contain synodal records, government gazettes, manuscripts, photographs and other keepsakes, and these contents are constantly, manically unpacked and studied by Sarel. Anna becomes increasingly disturbed by her situation…
Reviews online [click links to read]:
Disappointment Media
Overly Honest Movie Reviews
Spling
YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
Technical specs:
1 hour 29 minutes
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
Language: Afrikaans with English Subtitles
Original title:
Pou
