Swartwater

It's 1902, in Swartwater, Southern Africa. MARIA, a thirty-five year old woman dressed in black, stoically looks over a grave. A black veil obscures her face somewhat. Flies wizz past, she's unphased. HANNES, a thirty-year old man waits behind her, head down, fiddling with a bowler-hat. In the background, a STABLE-BOY, tends to two horses, one black, one white. DOMINEE MULDER, a sixty-two year old man, rocks back and forth with his fingers interlocked over a weathered bible he holds to his chest. His eyes are closed. His prayer is muffled. Maria glances down at a small pile of heaped-up earth at her feet. A crude, cross at the head of it. Next to the grave, five more. Their crosses and earth-piles are a lot smaller. Maria meets with FRANZ LOTZE, a shrewd businessman. He makes a dismal offer on her property. Maria refuses and suggests that she will find buyers elsewhere. The threat does little to intimidate Franz who takes the wind out of her sails, informing her that he had planned for such an eventuality. Maria realizes she's cornered. She threatens to sell to the Englishman, Mr. Webb instead. Franz informs her that that would be a very bad idea given the ongoing war. Maria storms out. DOCTOR ADRIAANSE, a short, sixty-five year old man with a long gray beard, examines Maria's ten-year old son, HARDUS. The boy lies under thick covers. He shivers and is unresponsive. The doctor tries to explain that he will no longer be coming by and that Maria should accept the inevitable but she doesn't want to hear it. She orders him to leave. SOPHIA, a maid in her early thirties, tells Maria about a boy in her village who had been bitten by a snake and that the witch-doctor had saved the boy. She offers to help and mentions the name "Igidelandlini". Maria is incensed by such a Godless suggestion and kicks Sophia out of the house. Izak, the black bull, knocks Maria unconscious. She awakes hours later next to the pen and realizes that Hardus has been alone the entire time. She hobbles into the boy's room and finds his lifeless body. Maria rides hard to Sophia's village where the former maid awaits her. Maria is shown to the witch-doctor's hut, where he forces her hand into a concoction of different elements. Maria escapes the hut only to find Hardus has been set alight by the villagers. Maria wakes up next to the pen again as though it were a dream but when she storms into the house, she finds Hardus sitting in the living room, waiting for her. She is thrilled to see him alive but something about the boy is strange. He doesn't speak, move or react but Maria's happiness overrides her sense. Maria drops Hannes' corpse, down the root-cellar. She covers the hatch with dried corn-stalks. JOUBERT, Hannes' older brother, soon to be mayor, ride up to the farmhouse with his men, almost catching her in the act. Joubert knows about the witch-doctor and blackmails her into selling her property to Franz, who he is in cahoots with. Maria realizes she is in way too deep. It all comes to an emotional-head for her when she gives her boy a bath. Her fingers sink into his skin, piercing his soft, decomposing flesh. She breaks down and begs for forgiveness. Maria pours paraffin all throughout the house. She tosses a lantern on the porch and the house is engulfed in flames within seconds. She proceeds to light the corn-fields, stands back and watches the flames spread wild. Maria takes a shotgun and shoots all the animals on the farm, in the process, she discovers a bag of course salt. She ties the bag of salt to a horse, then cuts it open, but before she can flail down, sending it off to salt the earth, she is dragged away by some invisible force, across the yard and into the root-cellar. Inside, she finds a small, waiting ceremony. Dead and decomposing livestock sit in two rows of pews that lead to an altar where Hannes' corpse awaits. Joubert shows up and helps Maria out of the cellar but she escapes into the bushveld. Joubert discovers Hannes' remains in the root-cellar and sets off in pursuit of her. She manages to find a hiding spot while Joubert and his men continue in the wrong direction. Relieved, Maria falls back into the side of the riverbed and tries to catch her breath. The grass on the banks rustle subtly. She hears the familiar sound of a big-cat's purr. She closes her eyes. The burnt-out remains of Maria's house is under reconstruction. Joubert casually strolls through the charred-structure. He ends up in Hardus' room, untouched by the fire, exactly as it was before. His eyes scan the room and notices the wooden cross still hanging next to the bed, on the wall.