Fynbos

Harry Patramanis : 2012

Richard, a real estate developer on the brink of bankruptcy, travels with his wife Meryl to a lavish and remote glass house bordering on a sweeping landscape in the Western Cape of South Africa. He is desperate to sell it. The transparent, glass Fynbos mansion blends into the hills with a beauty almost too great for the human eye to take in. The house stands between heaven and earth, like a virtual blind spot in the retina's perception. It is here that Meryl and Richard meet with a couple interested in buying the house, with the two hippie-like house-sitters also forming part of the group. When Meryl goes inexplicably missing, stifled by a sense of looming distrust and financial pressure, Richard is caught in a maze of missteps and uncertainty. The blind spot begins to expand, opening up the increasingly enigmatic story to new interpretations that bring themselves to bear on the occurrences both from without and from within. What transpires within the walls of this glass house then has little to do with money and everything to do with the human condition: souls are left pondering the line between what is real and what is perceived. Focusing more on people's actions and reactions, than on plot development, Harry Patramanis's debut feature is an exercise in minimalism. With its elliptical storytelling and evocative atmospherics, it is a unique and haunting dramatic thriller, allowing seemingly specific events to remain open to multiple interpretations. The film premiered at Durban International Film Festival 2012 and its European premiere screened in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2013.