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Review

Co-directors John Greyson and Jack Lewis, a Canadian auteur and Cape Town video activist, respectively, vibrantly bring alive the real life 18th-century romance between a pair of convicts — Hottentot Claas Blank and white Dutch sailor Rijkhaart Jacobsz. Fiery, manipulative and quick-witted, Claas charms English (and gay) botanist Virgil Tyne, who runs the prison's garden, researching and collecting protea flower species for the European market. In exchange for translating and providing him with native lore, Virgil rewards Claas with money and favors. Meanwhile, prickly Claas and soft-spoken Rijkhaart clandestinely begin a passionate, albeit tortured affair. Years pass, Virgil departs, and the convicts' love affair carries on until a gay scandal and violent retribution in Amsterdam tragically triggers a South African crackdown on sodomy... and Claas and Rijkhaart's capture. Can Claas scheme an escape? Or will they buckle under torture, admit their love and face execution?

Shot on digital video, with anachronistic touches and stunning shots of South African landscapes, Proteus is Greyson's most emotionally powerful work since Lilies, and brings to light an important page of forgotten gay history. (English and Afrikaans with English subtitles)

Lawrence Ferber