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Out Takes 2005 > Christchurch > Proteus
CHRISTCHURCH
TUE 14 JUN, 8.15PM, REGENT ON WORCESTER
PROTEUS
Dirs: John Greyson & Jack Lewis, South Africa/Canada, 2003, 35mm, 97 mins, English & Afrikaans with subtitles
In 1725 two young men meet while working in the prison garden of Robben Island, Cape Town’s penal colony. Claas Blank is a quick-witted Khoikhoi convict and determined to escape. Rijkhaart Jacobsz is a soft-spoken Dutch sailor serving time for sodomy. Despite the prohibition of vast racial and cultural taboos they embark on a tentative affair that neither has words for. Their furtive relationship is witnessed by Virgil Niven, the Scottish botanist who runs the prison garden. This strange triangle of fascination and repression continues for 10 years until Niven returns to the Cape and inadvertently brings about their downfall. With anachronistic touches and stunning shots of South African landscapes, Proteus is Greyson’s most emotionally powerful work since Lilies and brings to light an important page of forgotten gay history.
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CHRISTCHURCH
TUE 14 JUN, 8.15PM, REGENT ON WORCESTER
Reel Queer Inc, PO Box 12-201, Wellington, New Zealand
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