“A thoughtful and well-crafted film that gives a personal perspective on a particularly dark period in South Africa’s history.”

Playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in the Platform competition section is John Trengove’s The Smell of Apples. Trengove is known for his prior works, including the South African film The Wound (which made the Oscar international film shortlist in 2018) and his American Hollywood movie Manodrome, which starred Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody. With The Smell of Apples he returns to South Africa to create a confident and well-made period piece set during apartheid in 1974.

The film follows Marnus (Dawian van der Westhuizen), who is home for the summer and spends his break surrounded by family. His father Johan (Hilton Pelser) seems playful and affectionate with him, while his mother Leonor (Maude Sandham) is a devoted wife and mother. His sister Ilse (Karoline Watson) is an overachiever, his friend Frikkie (Wian Carstens) is almost like another brother, and Doreen (Celeste Matthews Wannenburgh), the family’s black nanny, quietly takes care of the household. 

Things begin to change as political tensions in South Africa grow. However, in the eyes of Marnus, he doesn’t know what is going on. His family is mostly isolated, being upper class and white, but his father is a general and is interconnected with the growing racial tension in the country. Two main events change Marnus’ view of the world. The first is his father’s harsh treatment of Doreen’s grandson, who is staying with her on the property, after Marnus mentions that he may have stolen Marnus’ grandfather’s fishing rod. The second is the arrival of Mr. Smith from Chile, who stays with the family due to Johan’s connections to the military.

With the fishing rod incident Marnus unknowingly begins to expose the violence and cruelty hidden beneath his family’s seemingly idyllic life. Ironically, the fishing rod itself is rather insignificant, especially considering that if it were truly important, Marnus or his father likely would not have lost it in the first place. This absurdity alone highlights the deep cruelty that will later take place. Marnus eventually finds the rod and tries to hide it from his family, knowing that what he did was wrong, but by then the damage has already been done. Doreen’s grandson had been burned nearly to death by the military after he was forced to leave the property and go live with another family member. Leonor and Ilse visit Doreen in the hospital and see the grandson’s wounds, making them increasingly angry with Johan for his involvement in the military’s oppression. Johan, meanwhile, remains mostly indifferent to the violence and becomes increasingly aggressive toward his family. 

The film is also very geopolitical. “Mr. Smith,” played by the terrific Alejandro Goic, is charismatic and  “cultured,” likes music, and is kind to Marnus. Leonor likes him a lot. His character is more complex and seemingly less evil than Johan, but that is also what makes him interesting. He shows how evil can hide behind culture, charm, and love. He comes from Chile and is obviously a member of the Pinochet government who helped the dictator gain power. The film places South Africa and Chile on one side of the Cold War, aligned with the United States against Russia, Angola, and others. The film is very much a product of that political moment. It is also interesting that Mr. Smith is treated as white within South Africa, while in other places, particularly the United States, he would not be considered white, and would be othered to a lesser status. It’s no coincidence that he chooses to be known by “Mr. Smith” instead of going by his Spanish last name. Trengove does a good job of showing the ironic fluidity of race and the way different groups in power use race and other seemingly random characteristics to obtain and keep power. 

For many reasons the film is a coming-of-age story, but one that is as much about Marnus developing morally as he does physically over the summer. He begins to see how evil society can be and how even family members may sometimes be corrupted. He has been taught that his family represents security and morality, but he slowly begins to understand that those things are not necessarily the same.

The film is based on Mark Behr’s 1993 novel of the same name, and it clearly influenced Trengove as he related it to his own childhood. Trengove has spoken about growing up in South Africa during the final decade of apartheid. He was taught at school a form of Christian nationalism which presented apartheid as “divinely sanctioned and socially necessary.” His parents were more progressive and tried to counter what he was learning at school and in society, leaving him with a contradiction between the world he was being instructed to accept and the one his parents tried to show him. Reading Behr’s novel gave him a way to understand those conflicting feelings, particularly in its depiction of Afrikaner family life and the white utopian bubble in which Marnus is raised.

There’s a turn late in the film which doesn’t seem quite necessary; we already know the father is a complex and terrible human, but Trengove wants to beat a dead horse. It doesn’t entirely work, although somehow it seems more and more relevant in our current age of politics, where those in charge often commit vile and evil acts while using their power to protect themselves.

While The Smell of Apples is a strong and well-made period piece that effectively captures the insulated world in which Marnus is living, it doesn’t reach any new highs or revelations. Trengove has made a thoughtful and well-crafted film that gives a personal perspective on a particularly dark period in South Africa’s history. Despite any shortcomings, it’s a film that is worth seeking out.