Leemtes en Leegheid (2022)

• romance
• biography
• documentary

Logline

Magdaleen, a recluse in her 80s, numbs the pain of losing her husband by envisioning him beside her. After being locked away with the memory of him in her apartment, she desperately attempts to venture into the outside world and to the sea that she longs for.

Plot Summary

Ingrid Jonker’s heartbreaking poem “Jy het my gesterf…”, is the pivot around which this Silwerskerm short film revolves. This moving short film tells the story of Magdaleen, a lonely widow trapped in the waves of loss. Magdaleen creates an imaginary version of her deceased husband to process the end of a lifetime’s love, but it also prevents her from entering the outside world and seeing the sea again, which she longs for. Lida Botha delivers a tour de force as Magdaleen alongside her husband of more than fifty years, Johan Botha. Another veteran, Ivan Abrahams, plays the role of Magdaleen’s new neighbor who shares her love for Ingrid Jonker’s poetry and in his own way becomes a mirror image of her longing to find closure.