Paljas

Awards

The film was submitted for the 70th Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, the first South African submission since the end of Apartheid.

Synopsis

The narrative of the film centers on the McDonald family residing in a rural setting. The family, led by Hendrik McDonald, the stationmaster of the small Karoo town known as Toorwater (Magic Water), encounters a series of unforeseen events after a visiting circus troupe accidentally leaves behind a clown named Manuel. The intrigues of the story include the estranged relationship between Hendrik and his wife Katrien, partly due to her being admired by Frans Lombard. Meanwhile, their daughter Emma is discontented with her suitor, Nollie Kemp, and Willem, the household's youngest, remains withdrawn and refuses to talk. The continued presence of the eccentric clown, Manuel, is kept secret by Willem. Manuel is later cruelly chased and shot by some of the local community who consider him to be evidence of anti-Christian forces despite having succeeded in convincing Willem to communicate and healed much of the family's pain through his caring and fun nature.