The Power of One Reflection

            When we first started watching this movie I didn't know what to expect. But I knew it was going to be pretty sad just based on the first ten minutes of the film.

            Throughout the movie, there is a constant theme of power and degradation. It started at the Afrikaner boarding school. The Afrikaner students, especially Jaapi Botha, were bullying pk. They spit on him, called him names, peed on him, killed his chicken, and attempted to kill him. All of these acts were degrading to P.K and showed that the Afrikaner students were better than P.K.

            Some of my favorite parts are after P.K leaves boarding school and lives with doc. I like when doc is teaching P.K all about South Africa and all the beautiful scenery is shown. I also really like the concert with all the native African tribes at the prison camp.

            Other scenes I like occur after P.K is in high school. One of them being when P.K and his friend Morrie started teaching the native Africans to read and write English, even though it was against the law. I also like Maria’s funeral because all of the people in Guideon’s village come in singing, and it joins the two different groups.

            I think the some of the saddest parts of the movie are when P.K is at the boarding school, and then when he is at the prison camp with doc. I found it very difficult to watch the scene where Sergeant Bormann beats and ultimately kills Geel Piet. Another part that was difficult to watch was when they all get beat at the church when they are teaching English to the native Africans. It was very sad when Maria died because that was the last person in P.K’s life that he loved.

            The ending, where the big fight/riot breaks out in the village, is another part that I found difficult to watch but I liked it at the same time. Obviously the violence made it hard to watch, but I liked it because P.K finally got revenge over Jaapi Botha and he was able to get on with his life.

            Over all I really enjoyed watching this movie. I got to see the wonderful geographic features of South Africa, and the terrible treatment of the native Africans. Watching how they were treated was painful to watch but, it needed to be included in the film.