Eersgeborene

Eersgeborene (First born) is a short South African film written, produced and directed by Etienne Kallos.

The film

Largely a gay version of African Gothic by Reza de Wet, it was written and directed by Etienne Kallos as his thesis film for the California College of Arts. The cast consisted of Hennie Janse van Rensburg as "Frikkie", Antoinette Kellermann as the mother, Hennie Lambrechts as the younger brother, Paul Lückhoff as the father and Thoko Ntshinga as "Alina". Cinematography was Gavin Goodman, editing by Etienne Kallos, first assistant director Shamiel Soni and camera and electrical department by Sven Vosloo.

This was the first Afrikaans-language film to win the Corto Cortissimo Lion for best short film at the Venice Film Festival. This won the Best Short Film award at The Venice Film Festival.

On the website of the California College of Arts[1], Kallos says: "I had a dream one night in New York about driving to a strange, old farmhouse in South Africa. When I woke I decided Eersgeborene should take place on a farm, and that it should explore a conflicted relationship between two men in some sort of emotional power struggle. When I read African Gothic, an English translation of a play by my very first mentor, the internationally acclaimed Afrikaans playwright Reza de Wet, I realized how I could use part of it as a vehicle for my own preoccupations. This is how my film ended up being in Afrikaans, a language I don't speak well. Once I found the play and got Reza's permission, it took me just a month to write the 20-page script."