On the Wire

In this riveting study of mental and social disintegration, Michael O'Brien plays Wouter Fourie, an Afrikaner major in the South African Defence Force, desperately trying to equate his experiences in the bush with the strict God-fearing Calvinist community at home. The fences are going up around him, while he and his wife fall prey to a frankly dangerous sexuality. Provocatively linking sex, repression and violence with the forces of religion and apartheid, this is powerful film-making, an immensely bold, accomplished debut for writer/director Elaine Proctor of the National Film and Television School.