stephanlinsenhoff The undeniable fact: we are born by parents. To be an individual: our responsible is to discard the parental form and replace our own. What we want to be and are. Guided by our very own ideas as model. Few reach this goal. A copy of what should be discarded. Not many manage and resume as copy their life. Among the not many is the life of Karin Jonkers. The fathers denial of his daughter, himself not only a writer but also a politician, made public in his speech his denial. The ultimate proof that both are individuals. Upright.Accepting the consequences. In public for all those cowards who choose the broad side of life. Like this his comment of her suicide has to be not only looked at but seen, reportedly he said: "They can throw her back in the sea for all I care." We have to, must as child of our parents discard the form we received at birth. By birth she was destined upper-class. Many are, growing up, revolutionary, sinking back into the comfortable frame of life. Even she. As it seemed. But consequently her loyalty was her own, focused on the South African questions many looked at, denying to see. Not caring what whoever told her to do: her divorced husband her lovers, her friend Jack Cope, himself a writer who always was there when needed. Nelson Mandela read her poem, "Die kind (wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga)" ("The child (who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga)"), in Afrikaans, during his address at the opening of the first democratically elected parliament on 24 May 1994.Ingrid Jonkers was homeless and in need of love. Apartheid, her father responsible for censorship was her enemy. Neither Jack Cope and Andre Brink helped or could help. She had to manage it alone. She was loved and loved but homeless. As it happened with the New Zealands poet and writer Janet Frame, also Ingrid Jonkers was periodical in a mental hospital: sent by her father! ... She and a few others home is the fringe of, what generally is called madness. But here, as society's fools, poetry and real life is the only true possibility. She is sane and insane. Not either-or but proofs that both is possible - as long as everything is given and nothing to loose and be taken.

Some Dude It would be extremely useful if IMDb were to actually mention this on the movie's page somewhere.If you are not from South Africa, you've probably never heard of this poetess from that Aparathied era. Unfortunately, this movie is unlikely to make you want to learn any more about her as it portrays her as an extremely unlikable, self-centred, promiscuous abuser of everyone she meets. I have no idea if this is actually how Jonker was in life, and quite frankly this movie makes me not care in the least.I'm sure she must have had some redeeming qualities, but the lacklustre performances and horrible script disguise them well.

anthonydavis26 This review was made for Cambridge Film Festival (UK) - 15 to 25 September 2011* Contains spoilers *As expected, Liam Cunningham (as Jack Cope) was excellent, but Carice van Houten, playing poet Ingrid Jonker, was a revelation. To those in the know, she perfectly carried out a role that betrayed the traits of impetuosity, feeling abandoned, blaming others, promiscuity, drinking too much in order to feel safe and able to cope, and becoming overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, which characterize some common personality disorders (they would probably have called them neuroses then).Yet, as is by no means inconsistent, her character was delightful, and she filled the screen with feeling, from seducing Jack, and showing the characters' hunger for each other in the very beautiful sex-scenes, to hurling objects at him with extreme force. There are claims that she has had other lovers, but Eugene and Jack, the ones who are definite, both find her draining, as well they would. A force for life is hard to live with, after all.Rutger Hauer as Ingrid's father (eerily resembling my former university tutor facially) has a harsh love (eventually, on account of her alleged sleeping around, he dismisses her as a slut), likely to have been one of the things that contributed to how she reacts to life and, through doing so in later life, the three psychiatric admissions that we see (or hear of), the last of them leading to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Although it is not always true that people are never the same after it, she is damaged.She is also damaged by the child whom she wished she had kept, and by the one fathered by Eugene, and which led her to desperate steps in Paris and that last admission. Whereas the film does not pretend to portray Ingrid's life or that of others who were close to her faithfully, hearing Carice (and, against his judgement, her character's father) read her verse will encourage a journey to look out her writing, not least given that is was allowed such a prominent place in the new South Africa.Maybe the real Ingrid wrote on the walls, maybe she didn't, but it set up a world in which desperate words written in the condensation in Paris were hurtingly real, and also tragically echoed her having made love to Jack in her old room at her father's house (the old servants' quarters), their bodies touching and mingling with her script.Not exactly a love-story, through she clearly does love Jack (but cannot be 'faithful'), but one about what it is to feel, love and live, and to write faithfully what one believes in, whatever the cost.

amalgam-3 A middle aged writer rescues a young woman from drowning near the shores of South Africa. Although he is much older, they fall in love right there and then and soon some obvious complications ensue. There is hardly a likable or interesting character in this wandering historical drama about the poet Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten). It deals primarily with the mentally troubled writer and her precarious relationships with men, including her father (Rutger Hauer) who is a member of the apartheid regime she strongly opposes. The film never picks up any speed and the absence of a discernible plot line or a compelling narrative makes for a very pallid viewing experience. Hauers script is particularly one-note but the same could be said of van Houten who seemed to be out of her depth in the role of a frustrated and depressed young woman trying to get her voice heard through rebellious poetry. Liam Cunningham fares a lot better as one of the two love interests and produces the only sympathetic character of the film.