HIS BIG WHITE SELF
**** out of *****
Reviewed by Juan Incognito

Screening in the 2006 New Zealand International Film Festival
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Genres
Documentary
Politics

2006
Directed by
Nick Broomfield

It constantly amazes me how quickly events change, how once important, dangerous people or groups become quickly powerless, forgotten.  Such is Eugene Terre’Blanche, and his community of hard right Afrikaner supremacists, the AWB of South Africa. The film is a follow-up to a documentary made fifteen years previously during the heat of the South African transition to universal, multi-racial democracy; it examines what has become of the AWB, its leader Terre’Blanche, and his former driver.  Broomfield’s documentary is a sometimes scary but always funny documentary.

How things change

South Africa today is a relatively benign situation; people know it for its sport teams, the wildlife, strong economy and its HIV/AIDS epidemic.  Fifteen years ago things were very different, the country was negotiating a transition from the racist Apartheid state to an unknown but probably multiracial democratic future. There were multiple groups, parties, and military forces; people, all of whom had different agendas and constituencies - civil war like what happened in Yugoslavia was very likely.  Terre’Blanche and his supporters formed one of these groups, the AWB, who fought to stop the dismantlement of the Apartheid state and the destruction of Afrikaner control over South Africa.  In this their principle enemies were the ruling National Party and its negotiation partner, the ANC.   It was an incredibly brutal time, bombs were planted, people beaten up, meetings disrupted, all in a fashion that closely, if not deliberately echoed the rise of the fascists in Italy and Germany.  In this dangerous time Broomfield interviewed Blanche and his followers in what must have been a life threatening situation.  By contrast, fifteen years later the AWB and its members are powerless old men, living in a very different place to the past, where they had been powerful, dangerous people.

A strange friendship

The documentary manages to split its focus quite neatly between its examination of Terre’Blanche and his former driver, JP and his wife and what happened to them after the first film finished. Both were equally committed to the cause of Afrikaner supremacy in their own ways.  Whereas Terre’Blanche made speeches, performed dramatic photo opportunities, encouraged violence and strutted the national and world stage his driver, JP, sat in the background, plotting, making bombs and doing many other unsavoury things that are only alluded to in the film.  But in his own way he is a very human figure, a balding middle-aged man who is wary, but not really ashamed of what he did, despite the loss of all that he believed in.  He has a peculiar chemistry with Broomfield; they share stories, remembering the events of 1991 and later, its almost like two old friends meeting who haven’t seen each other for a decade or so.  They share confidences about Terre’Blanche in a way that makes them almost conspirators, which in a way is quite disgusting since JP very possibly was the man who had a direct hand in many of the bombings conducted by the AWB during the 1991-1994 period.  But it is possible to sympathise with JP as a person, despite his belief in the Biblical destiny of the White Man.

Dogs are loyal

One of the great things about this film is that it easily traverses from the political material to the absurd.  There is one particularly good scene where Broomfield is meeting the driver for the first time in 15 years, he is nervous, talking of the death threats he received, which may have come from the man he is about to visit.  He arrives at the house, the audience doesn’t know what to expect, and then he surprises the driver who is in the midst of his toiletries.  There was an embarrassed exchange in the bathroom before the driver managed to regain his privacy, but any dignity he regained was lost when his pet dog fell over trying to jump onto a seat.  Or when Broomfield disguised himself as a foppish Englishman interested in Terre’Blanche’s poetry in order to get an interview. This was priceless slapstick humour in the midst of danger.

Can hypnotism cure addictions?

Documentaries that use humour as a key narrative device can run the risk of coming across as mocking or superior, luckily Broomfield manages to escape this trap.  While he makes liberal use of humour, in both language and the occasional slapstick moments one never gets the impression that he is being mean spirited about it.  In fact he uses it to break up tension filled moments, of which there are many, given the subject matter and his close proximity to men that have demonstrated ability to do great violence.  It was a refreshing documentary to watch, that didn’t take itself too seriously but did attempt to examine important subject matter.  Having seen this I really want to revisit the original documentary, The Leader, His Driver and the Driver’s Wife.

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