Proteus (2003 film)

Set in 18th-century South Africa, the film dramatizes the true story of Claas Blank (Rouxnet Brown) and Rijkhaart Jacobsz (Neil Sandilands), two prisoners on Robben Island. Herder Claas Blank was serving 10 years for "insulting a Dutch citizen" and Rijkhaart was a Dutch sailor convicted of committing "unnatural acts" with another man. The two men, initially hostile to each other, form a secret relationship, using trips to a private water tank to bond. Their relationship had a racial component, as Jacobsz was a Dutchman, while Blank was a Khoi.

Virgil Niven (Shawn Smyth), a Scottish botanist, befriends Blank for his knowledge of South African flora, including the protea. It is suggested that he may have had a sexual interest in Blank.

In 1735, Blank and Jacobsz were executed for sodomy, by being drowned, after jealousy by other inmates caused problems within the jail.

The film ends with an extract from the speech Nelson Mandela made at his sentencing hearing in 1964, before he was imprisoned on Robben Island.[3]

The film explores unanswered questions, such as why prison officials tolerated the relationship for a full decade before Blank and Jacobsz were executed. In an interview packaged with the DVD release, John Greyson notes the real Blank and Jacobsz began their relationship when they were both teenagers—Blank having been imprisoned on Robben Island at age 16—and were actually known to be a couple for twenty years before they were charged with sodomy and executed, when they were both nearly 40.

Intentional anachronisms, such as transistor radios, electric typewriters and jeeps, are used in the film to illustrate Greyson's larger theme that homophobia and racism of the type that led to Blank's and Jacobsz' executions remain very much present in the world. These twentieth-century objects, including contemporary (c. 1964) dress on many occasions, appear in juxtaposition with eighteenth-century items. The eighteenth-century prison commandant, for example, is replaced by a former subordinate who wears a twentieth-century guard's uniform and is often accompanied by a fierce-looking Alsatian on a short lead.[3] A wet bag, a torture devise from Apartheid South Africa, is seen.[3]

Dennis Harvey of Variety stated that the "film has enough erotic and exotic content to win arthouse viewers" but it "lacks lush aesthetics and impassioned complexity, ending up a tad remote".[4]

Giving the film 3 out of 4 stars, Ken Fox of TV Guide said "the postmodern touches never detract from what is at heart a deeply moving love story".[5]

Dave Kehr of The New York Times stated "a heavy, pretentious, and derivative film" and it had been "gussied it up with fantasy sequences and formal games that distract from the dramatic core".[6]

• Proteus at IMDb