Ellen Pakkies

Ellen Pakkies

Ellen Pakkies is the real-life subject of a number of documentary and dramatic works of South African television, theatre and film — a Cape Flats mother whose killing of her drug-addicted son in 2007 became a widely publicised court case and the basis for a television documentary, a stage play and a feature film.

The Ellen Pakkies Case

An ordinary woman living in the notoriously violent area of Lavender Hill on the Cape Flats, Cape Town, Ellen Pakkies came to public attention when she murdered her son Adam ("Abie"), on 12 September 2007, after he had become an increasingly abusive crystal methamphetamine (tik) addict.

The story created an international stir in 2007 and 2008 and continued to do so for years afterwards. At her trial the court took into account the extent to which the social system had failed her, and she received a three-year prison sentence that was wholly suspended for three years, together with 280 hours of community service. The case was widely regarded as a landmark, drawing attention to the social conditions and systemic failures on the Cape Flats, and has since been the subject of two international doctorates as well as a documentary film, a stage play and a feature film.

Works about Ellen Pakkies

The Ellen Pakkies Story (2010): a television documentary by the filmmaker Michael Duffett that brought the case to a wide television audience.

My Naam/My Name is Ellen Pakkies (2011): a bilingual (English/Afrikaans) stage play written and directed by Lizz Meiring, written after she saw Duffett's documentary.

Ellen: Die Ellen Pakkies Storie (2018): an Afrikaans feature film directed by Daryne Joshua, with a screenplay by Amy Jephta.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen:_The_Ellen_Pakkies_Story

See also the individual entries on The Ellen Pakkies Story, My Naam/My Name is Ellen Pakkies and Ellen: Die Ellen Pakkies Storie for further sources.

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