‘The Station Strangler’: How director told gripping story by speaking to those closely affected [VIDEO]

For film director Nadine Cloete it was hearing accounts from a criminal profiler that gave her a true grim sense of the story she was trying to tell on Showmax documentary The Station Strangler.

Interview with Micki Pistorius ‘so intense’

“I think in the other interviews, I could almost separate myself emotionally. But with her, because she went so deep into the psychology of the serial killer, it was just so intense,” said Cloete while speaking about her sit-down with criminal profiler Micki Pistorius.

In 1986, a faceless serial killer began stalking children on the Cape Flats. He became known as the Station Strangler. By 1994, 22 young boys had been found dead, sodomised and then strangled.

In 1995, schoolteacher Norman Simons was convicted of the murder of 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen, the last victim in the string of child murders.

Twenty-eight years after his imprisonment, Simons was released on parole, opening up fresh wounds in a community where justice often seems out of reach.

The Station Strangler features interviews with family members of the victims, lead investigator JD Kotze, Pistorius, and Dr Allan Boesak, among others. 

“Going into those spaces was challenging. Dealing with the case in front of you, the facts and the evidence, and then seeing those things was super difficult,” said Cloete.

“Twenty-one were killed. You think what it means for childhood, for people who grew up close to that community in that era. If I tell anyone that I’ve done a documentary about the Station Strangler, they have a story to share about their experience during that time.”

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Telling the story

According to Cloete, the first person that was interviewed was was Ruth Jakuja, the ex-magistrate who wrote The Station Strangler: In the Case of S v Azval S Simons.

“She’s one of the people who feels that Norman Simons is innocent. I think that helped because it set the tone: for the rest of the interviews. I took what she said and tried to balance things against her arguments,” said the filmmaker.

The film was made by IdeaCandy Production Agency, the same company behind other captivating stories such as Rosemary’s Hitlist, Convict Conman and Tracking Thabo Bester.

Cloete was roped into the project by IdeaCandy.

“They were looking for a director for this documentary that they were doing. They have an amazing reputation, so I immediately wanted to work with and learn from them,” she said.

Cloete said she felt this was a subject she would want to tackle because it is both a criminal case and a story of history and identity.

“They then called me into a meeting and told me what the subject matter was. I was taken aback because this was a subject I knew about. All kids of colour grew up with this story; the Station Strangler was a type of bogeyman.”

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Victim’s voices

The director said she received different responses from the victimised families. For example, the Van Rooyen family was very keen to speak. Elroy van Rooyen’s aunt, Florence, still had a lot of anger towards Simons.

“So getting the buy-in of the family was an immediate yes. However, Ryno [Elroy’s cousin] was not sure if he wanted to participate. I went to see him in person and spoke to him and then he agreed to speak. He was very supported by his family.”

The Samaai family were a bit more hesitant to be interviewed because it was very difficult for them. “While Van Rooyen’s case went to trial, the same didn’t happen for the Samaais. They still have so many questions,” she said of the family.

Cloete said things changed when she did an interview with one of the Samaai sisters, Pam.

“Pam told us that she had kept all the newspapers related to the case. So the scene in the documentary, where she was taking out all the newspapers on their kitchen table, that was not even planned, it was something that just happened on the day.

“I think doing a scene like that, which was organic for the family, helped with the rest of the interviews with the Samaai family.”

The Station Strangler, premiers on Showmax on Wednesday, 6 November.

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