The controversial new documentary, ‘Fatherland’, produced and directed by filmmaker Tarryn Lee Crossman is a hard and unscripted look inside the ‘Kommandokorps’ military boot camps that are being run deep in the South African bushveld.
The controversial new documentary, ‘Fatherland’, produced and directed by filmmaker Tarryn Lee Crossman is a hard and unscripted look inside the ‘Kommandokorps’ military boot camps that are being run deep in the South African bushveld. These camps are designed to recreate a sense of nationalism amongst the next generation of Afrikaaners. Col. Franz Jooste is in charge at the Kommandokamps, he is an ex-SADF soldier that fought for his country pre 1994.The film follows three particular boys who spend nine days at the camp and focuses on the conflicting views developed by the boys, who, under the strict leadership of their camp leader, struggle to find their own identity within their own communities and the within ‘rainbow’ nation at large. The children are forced to participate in a physically and mentally grueling process that tests their values, believes and identities on many levels.SynopsisFatherland is a coming-of-age documentary set in the remote South African bush. It follows a group of Afrikaner boys over 9 days at a military-style camp in the spirit of their fathers before them. However, what starts out as basic training, fitness and camaraderie soon intensifies as the true nature of the camp is revealed and the boys are forced to question their place in the ‘New South Africa’.