Hunting Emma (Jagveld) (2017)

Director: Byron Davis

Starring: Leandie du Randt, Neels van Jaarsveld, Tim Theron

Gentle, beautiful, pacifist Emma witnesses a murder in the wild. Six violent men killing a cop in cold blood. So, they hunt her like an animal in the desolate Karoo. She should have been easy prey. But life is full of surprises.

Hail to Byron Davis for making this very non-typical South African film, which was a breath of fresh air. This is one of the very few vengeance films from South Africa and I enjoyed how brutal and unsympathetic this was.

The set-up of Emma’s character was so ironic of what was to come, and very effective, actually. The photography was very good, as well as the cinematography. It was really beautifully shot. This film also proves movies can be so much better if shot on location instead of constant use of blue or green screens. Learn from this, Hollywood!! I enjoyed the fact that our protagonist also got tired, and was not portrayed as a super hero. She remained vulnerable throughout. Neels van Jaarsveld was very good as antagonist Bosman.

‘Hunting Emma’ won Best Feature Drama.

In Afrikaans.