Go to content
On 19 July 1965, the South-African poet Ingrid Jonker walked into the sea near Drieankerbaai in Cape Town at the age of 31. She left behind a little daughter and an oeuvre of three laurelled collections of poems. Jonker's work fell into oblivion, until on 25 May 1994 president Nelson Mandela opened the very first session of the first democratically elected parliament of South Africa with Jonker's poem Die kind wat dood geskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga, a poem from 1960 that refers to the demonstrations near Sharpeville. Mandela chose the poem for good reason; he called Jonker 'both an African and an Afrikaner'. A white person in South Africa cannot get a bigger compliment. In the documentary Korreltjie niks is my dood, director Saskia van Schaik reconstructs the poet's eventful life, making her powerful poetry with its South-African rhythm tell part of the story.

Credits

Set geluid
TV company
VPRO TV

Title: Korreltjie niks is my dood
Year: 2001
Duration : 54 minutes
Category: Short Documentary
Edition: NFF 2002

NFF Archive

You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

Stills

Still