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Black Butterflies Movie Review Summary

Actors: Carice van Houten, Rutger Hauer, Liam Cunningham

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Black Butterflies


Biopic of the life of poet Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten). She lived in South-Africa, while it was still under the apartheid regime, from1933 till 1965 and wrote poetry in the Afrikaner language. Because her mother died in a mental institution, she lives with her sister at her grandmother's house. After the death of her grandmother, Ingrid and her sister go and live with their father (Rutger Hauer), who is the Minister of Censorship in the South-African government. He isn't very pleased with the living arrangements and treats them as strangers. To get out of the house, Ingrid marries, and gives birth to a baby girl, but the marriage fails. She has several affairs and sleeps with whomever you feels like. Ingrid and her father don't see eye to eye on the subject of apartheid. Her father, as part of the system that upholds it, is a strong supporter. Ingrid is very much opposed to apartheid and writes poems about her ideas and experiences on the matter. She has a difficult relationship with her father because on differences of opinion on other matters as well: her outlook on life in general, her writing, and her relationships with men. Among those relationships, the one with author Jack Cope (Liam Cunningham) is the most important one and lasts the longest. But because of her affairs with other men, he breaks up with her after a while. Her father wants to ban one of her books, as he thinks it's inciting, but because he fears widespread riots, he lets it go. As Ingrid keeps opposing the regime in her writing, their relationship deteriorates, and he tells her he never wants to see her again. Ingrid grows more and more frustrated with life and eventually walks into the ocean, drowning herself at the age of 32. Jack sees to it that a selection of her poems gets published after her death.
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Best part of story, including ending: It's a biopic and this is an account of what happened in the life of Ingrid Jonker.

Best scene in story: Where Jack gets excited by her work, recognizing her talent.

Opinion about the main character: It is sad to see someone so talented being so frustrated with life and die so young.

The review of this Movie prepared by Benten a Level 8 Sooty Shearwater scholar

Script Analysis of Black Butterflies

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Plot & Themes

Time/era of movie:    -   1960's-1970's Job/Profession/Poverty Story?    -   Yes Job:    -   writer

Main Character

Identity:    -   Female Profession/status:    -   writer Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   African

Setting

Africa    -   Yes Kind of Africa:    -   White Enclave

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   generic/vague references to death/punishment Any profanity?    -   Occasional swearing

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