
Krotoa, The Film
We take a look at one of the new local films that set to get tongues wagging, Krotoa. In the studio we are joined by actress Crystal-Donna Roberts, who plays the lead role of Krotoa. We are also joined by the Scriptwriter, Kaye Ann Williams.
Krotoa is a film about feisty, bright, young 11 year old girl, Krotoa, that is removed from her close-knit Khoi tribe to serve Jan van Riebeeck, her uncle’s trading partner. She is brought into the first Fort established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. There she grows into a visionary young woman who assimilates the Dutch language and culture so well that she rises to become an influential interpreter for van Riebeeck who became the first Governor of the Cape Colony.’
(image source: Uwe Jansch)
Crystal-Donna Roberts – Lead Actress
She became a household name when we got to know her on SABC2’s lifestyle show Pasella, but now actress and TV personality Crystal Donna Roberts has spread her wings and is wowing audiences with her acting abilities on an international scale and has been in movies such as Chronicle in 2012 and now she is starring in this gripping drama.
She is playing the role of Krotoa and film is taken from her point of view and represents her voice. Krotoa was a Khoi princess, she is now oftenly regarded as the ‘Mother of the Nation’. Her marriage to the Colony’s first doctor, Pieter van Meerhoff from Denmark, is the first recorded intermarriage between an indigenous woman and a European man. She was also the first recorded indigenous woman to be baptised into the Christian religion of the colonialists.
(image source: Uwe Jansch)
Kaye Ann Williams - Scriptwriter
We are joined by the scriptwriter of the Krotoa film. She is a Cape Town based writer and producer with many television credits under her name such as Saints and Sinners, Traffic and Montana. Kaye Ann tried staing true to the facts and deductions made about Krotoa’s life, having first made a dhocumentary about her with the help of various historians and cultural advisers.
Krotoa is a film that was inspired by actual historical events that transpired, that focused on Krotoa’s personal journey that she went through. Kaye Ann had also previously directed a documentary on Krotoa’s life, in 2013 for SABC1. She has said that the difference between the documentary and the film is that, the documentary mainly focused on the facts of her life that they had available to them. While the film focus’ on discovering a possible journey of her life, filling in the blanks with historical facts with character, and what would have possibly happened. She is hoping that the film will stimulate dialogue and discourse.
Krotoa opens nationwide in cinemas on 4 August 2017
For more information on the film click here