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Burning, The (1967)
 

BFI

Main image of Burning, The (1967)
 
35mm, black and white, 30 mins
 
Directed byStephen Frears
Made with the assistance ofMemorial Enterprises, BFI Production Board
Produced byStephen Frears
Screenplay byRoland Starke
PhotographyDavid Muir
MusicMisha Donat

Cast: Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies (Gran); Isabel Muller (Cookie); Maxine Day (Nurse); Cosmo Pieterse (Johnnie, the chauffeur); Mark Baillie (Raymond, the child)

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A white South African's weekly visit to her sister's farm where a black uprising has taken place, and her reaction to the situation.

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Stephen Frears' haunting first film deals with the ultimate problems of apartheid both directly and obliquely.

It is oblique in so far as it presents the first day of a black revolution in South Africa through the uncomprehending eyes of a bewildered white child, his genteel grandmother. It is direct since its characters are constantly identifying themselves and others in terms of colour, while their refusal to face facts leads them inexorably to the burning of the coloured chauffeur.

Frears wisely avoids didacticism, and the horrors his film reflects are the more disturbing for being uncommented and frequently unseen. And the final image of the grandmother sitting watching the sunset as her civilisation disintegrates all round her is a metaphor more chilling than any direct argument.

Monthly Film Bulletin, September 1968

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Video Clips
1. White young master (4:43)
Complete film (30:30)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
Production stills
SEE ALSO
Frears, Stephen (1941-)
They Started Here