Faith Like Potatoes

Put your faith elsewhere: this local film doesn't deserve it

October 27, 2006

By Theresa Smith

Director: Regardt van den Bergh
Cast: Francois Rautenbach, Jeanne Wilhelm, Hamilton Dhlamini, Sean Cameron Michael
Running time: 111 minutes
Classification: PG L
Rating: 5/10

It's been a while since a film with such an overt Christian message was released on the main circuit. The story is based on the life of Angus Buchan (Francois Rautenbach of 7de Laan fame), a Zambian farmer who left behind the land grabs and politics to set up a new farm in KwaZulu-Natal.

With the help of foreman Simeon Benghu (natural performance from Hamilton Dhlamini), he carved out a place for his family, but it is only once he asked the Lord into his life that things started going right.

The title alludes to the faith a potato farmer has to have that the vegetable is growing. Only at harvest time does he find out whether his faith was justified.

Unfortunately our faith in director Regardt van den Bergh is not justified. The film is beautifully filmed, but the wooden acting.and stilted dialogue let it down. Rautenbach's overblown acting is just too much.

The transition between his "I hate black people" Zambian farmer to "love thy neighbour" South African preacher is sudden, and while he goes melodramatic in emotional scenes, Jeanne Wilhelm (wife, Jill) is so impassive she might as well not be there.

The film is supposed to be about how faith has changed this man's life, but we never see how or why.

It would have made better sense if there was more about the process of change in his personality and less of the set up of how he got into this particular state.

If you can watch a televangelist faith-heal someone and not blink an eye but lift your hands to the Lord, you will love this. Otherwise, you are going to wince.

While the message of Christian love and tolerance is a beautiful one, hitting the audience over the head with it because your film lacks subtlety and character progression just turns them away.