South Africa’s first horror movie Siembamba, based on a controversial myth, will come to life on the big screen next week in Centurion.
A red carpet premiere will be hosted by Epic Cinemas at Mall @ Reds on Monday evening, 2 October.
Returning to her hometown, Eden Rock, and overwhelmed by the birth of her first child, Chloe van Heerden (19) tries to come to terms with motherhood.
Despite the support from her mother, Ruby (35), Chloe struggles with the demand of being a new mom.
The incessant crying of her baby, the growing sense of guilt and paranoia sends Chloe into a dark depression.
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With a heightened urge to protect her son, Chloe sees danger in every situation.
Distraught she pays a visit to family psychologist Dr. Timothy Reed (40s) who diagnoses her intrusive thoughts and anxiousness to a case of baby blues.
Yet the thoughts grow worse and more violent. Chloe starts to hear voices and the humming of a childhood lullaby and sees flashes of a strange entity around her child.
Convinced that the entity is real, Chloe does everything in her power to protect her son. Her decline reaches fever pitch, and everybody seems to be moving against her.
Desperate, Chloe finds solace in the arms of her childhood friend, Adam Hess (20s).
The world around Chloe implodes and it becomes clear that she and her child are in imminent danger. But from what?
Is Chloe haunted by evil or is it just the baby blues?
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Siembamba is set during 1899, during the Anglo-Boer War.
The Boer men disappear into the hills to fight a guerilla war from the shadows, leaving their families at home, vulnerable.
In 1901, British troops annexed a little town, using the church as a hospital for their soldiers.
They killed the children and raped the women.
To a conservative Calvinist woman, rape was worse than death.
In 1902, the women were shamed into silence.
They found support in the arms of a midwife deep in the woods of their town.
The midwife would sing the bastard children to sleep and one by one, break their necks.
Today Afrikaans mothers can be heard singing their babies to sleep to the words of the midwife’s lullaby, “Siembamba, mamma se kindjie…”
“Siembamba mama’s child,
Siembamba mama’s child,
Twist his neck,
Throw him in the ditch,
Step on his head, then he is dead.”
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