Indemnity film receives high praise locally and overseas

“It is the best, most daring and balanced South African action film that has ever been made,” was movie critic, Leon van Nierop’s comment on the film, Indemnity, which was recently screened at the 10^th Silwerskermfees at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay.

The film was introduced to international viewers at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada last year and is already in US cinemas.

Script writer and director, Travis Taute made his debut with the film, which tells the story of Theo Abrahams (Jarrid Geduld), a former firefighter who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Theo’s world is turned upside down when his journalist wife, Angela (Nicole Fortuin) is murdered, and he becomes the lead suspect.

It forces him to run from the police as he is convinced about his innocence.

Someone planted evidence. Or, was it one of his nightmares that made him do something he shouldn’t have done?

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In the film, the murder investigation is led by deputy principal, Alan Shard (André Jacobs) and detective René Williamson (Gail Mabalane) and in the process, various findings about Theo’s past, his post-traumatic stress, what happened with his wife and government conspiracies is brought to light.

Indemnity is intense and impressive, promising a lot of action scenes as Theo fights for his life.

Taute says he wanted to make an action film and was lucky enough that the producers saw the vision and supported it.

“It was important for the heart of the film to be character driven,” he says.

“A story of a man with trauma whose emotions are brought forward in between action scenes.”

PTSD is one of the key elements throughout the film and Taute says: “There is a huge stigma around mental health. It is seen as a weakness. Many men can’t talk about emotional and psychological health in a constructive manner, and it is this important matter that I wanted to address in the film.”

Taute was also the co-writer of the Netflix series, Blood and Water and Nosipho Dumisa’s Nommer 37 and always finds a way to keep the viewer intrigued.

Indemnity is distributed locally by Filmfinity (pty) ltd and will be in cinemas from 13 May.