AllMovie

A South African police officer still haunted by the role he played in the brutal torture and murder of a young freedom fighter travels to the dying fishing town from which the boy came to beg the forgiveness of his grieving mother and father in first-time director Ian Gabriel's unflinching look at the crumbling emotional dams that came with the end of apartheid. Upon arriving in the crumbling town of Paternoster, ex-policeman Tertius Coetzee (Mummy star Arnold Vosloo) unleashes a suffocating torrent of despair and suppressed rage in the emotionally fragile Grootboom family. Though he has come to seek forgiveness for failing to prevent the grim demise of Daniel Grootboom, the crime Tertius has committed in allowing the murder to happen has already muted the emotions of his young victim's damaged family. Hendrik Grootboom (Zane Meas) is a stoic fisherman who holds out hope that the town will one day become prosperous again as son Ernest (Christo Davids) retreats into mathematics. Meanwhile, mother Magda (Denise Newman) and daughter Sannie (Quanita Adams) simply long for the days when things were less complicated. As the shockwaves of anger ripple through the Grootbooms' hearts and home, the enraged Sannie determines to settle the score with her brother's killer by ensuring that Tertius remains in Paternoster long enough for Daniel's vengeful friends to arrive in town.