In the vast Namib wastes, a stranger in a long black coat hitches lifts along the endless road, a spine running through Namibia. Soon the wasteland is littered with corpses and the last policeman in the small town of Bethany is faced with a mystery that threatens his eternal soul.

A young woman on the run from her broken marriage in Pretoria picks up the stranger and becomes enmeshed in a dance of death with a Soul-taker, intent on releasing the miserable from their oh-too-solid flesh. His mission, this lonely man – an amalgam of the singer from The Fields of the Nephilim and the arisen revenger from Django Kill! – is to release the souls of those who want to die. Some of these may not realise their true desires and he is there to show them their destiny.

Richard Stanley’s direction is subtle and penetrating, juggling the horror film conventions with an examination of a country and a people scarred by racism, war and sexism.

Richard Stanley | Afrique du Sud/Namibie/Royaume-Uni, 1992 | 1h47m | 35mm | anglais |

In the vast Namib wastes, a stranger in a long black coat hitches lifts along the endless road, a spine running through Namibia. Soon the wasteland is littered with corpses and the last policeman in the small town of Bethany is faced with a mystery that threatens his eternal soul.

A young woman on the run from her broken marriage in Pretoria picks up the stranger and becomes enmeshed in a dance of death with a Soul-taker, intent on releasing the miserable from their oh-too-solid flesh. His mission, this lonely man – an amalgam of the singer from The Fields of the Nephilim and the arisen revenger from Django Kill! – is to release the souls of those who want to die. Some of these may not realise their true desires and he is there to show them their destiny.

Richard Stanley’s direction is subtle and penetrating, juggling the horror film conventions with an examination of a country and a people scarred by racism, war and sexism.

Richard Stanley | South Africa/Namibia/UK 1992 | 1h47m | 35mm | English |