Variations on a Theme

• Venue: Film at Lincoln Center
• Address: 165 W 65th Street, New York, NY 10023
• Dates & Times:
  • Saturday, April 18
  • Sunday, April 19
• Artists & Performers:
  • Directors: Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar
  • Starring: Hettie Farmer as Hettie
  • Voice-over narration: Jason Jacobs
• Activity Description: "Variations on a Theme" is a North American premiere film, winner of the top prize at International Film Festival Rotterdam. This casually expansive drama, directed by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, is a collection of linked short stories about village life in South Africa. The film centers on an elderly goatherd, Hettie (Hettie Farmer), as she reflects on her life. The narrative is prompted by a scam offering reparations to descendants of Black veterans of the Second World War. Hettie, the daughter of such a soldier, experiences the lasting inequities of apartheid in the village of Kharkams, depicted through droll and unassuming snapshots of daily life with widescreen compositions and saturated color. The film explores the village's eccentrics, dreamers, and survivors, consistently returning to Hettie as she endures quietly, minds her goats, and prepares for her 80th birthday. Her rich inner life is conveyed through an eloquent, ironic voice-over narration read by co-director Jason Jacobs (Farmer’s grandson). The film's porous, unassuming realism blends past and present, human and animal, and the quotidian with the cosmic. A screening + Q&A session with Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar will follow the film.
• Language: Afrikaans with English subtitles
• Runtime: 65 minutes
• Origin Country: South Africa / Netherlands / Qatar