Variations on a theme

An elderly goat herder in the mountains of Namaqualand, South Africa, falls victim to a scam promising long-awaited compensation for her father's WWII service. An impression of waiting, endurance, and loss.

Ouma Hettie is haunted by the ghost of her father, a man who went off to fight in the Second World War and returned home with nothing but a bicycle as reward, while white soldiers received a plot of land. Waiting for money that will never come, the upheavals surrounding her eightieth birthday threaten the last remnants of her independence. This Tiger Award winner at the Rotterdam festival unfolds according to a recurring visual structure, inspired by the musical composition form 'Theme and Variations'. This documentary examines how history keeps repeating itself when you remain forever dependent on others.