Arnold Vosloo Resource Page:
| Morenga (1985), was just recently discovered by Arnold Vosloo's fans. The film, shot in 1983 and early 1984, was well received at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival. |
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According to the "All Movie Guide": Based on a novel of the same title by Uwe Timm and set in 1904 in South Africa, this is an uneven tale of war and intrigue between native South Africans, German colonialists, and British colonialists, a war no one really wins. Gottschalk (Jacques Breuer) and Wenstrup (Edwin Noel) are two German veterinarians who have settled in German Southwest Africa to tend to the needs of cattle ranchers. When a rebellion by a local dissident named Morenga (Ken Gampu) is brutally crushed by the Germans, the two vets get involved, at great risk to themselves, and offer help to the native revolutionaries. What follows is a sequence of battles and skirmishes that ultimately lead to Morenga seeking asylum in South Africa, where the ruling Brits are about as trustworthy as their German counterparts. Morenga was nominated for a Golden Bear award at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival. -- Eleanor Mannikka |
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From the Chicago Reader: A German drama of colonial guilt, it follows--ploddingly--the standard formula. An idealistic young medic signs up for service in the German Southwest Africa of 1911; he's disgusted by the way the colonists treat the natives, and when the war against the Hottentots breaks out, he tries to desert. Like so many German movies at the time, the film is unrelievedly didactic: it doesn't show a shred of interest in the characters or situations for their own sake, but uses them only as illustrations of a moral position that's more than clear from the outset. With Jacques Breuer, Edwin Noel, and Jurgen Holtz; the director, an East German refugee, is Egon Gunther. by Dave Kehr |
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Links
IMDb Berlin International Film Festival, 1985 Interview with Uwe Timm |
