Donker Spore

Screening Details

Running Time: unknown (Black and White) / Copyright Date: unknown / Release Date: 5 October 1944 (premiere) / Language: Afrikaans / Genre: Crime / Alternative Title: none.

Synopsis

Sarel van Duine, fresh from university, applies for a job as reporter with Die Burger. He impresses the editor, Mr. Rompel, who immediately sends him to Ladismith where a seemingly supernatural murder has been committed. A man called Tys Lootsman has been killed while riding home through a pass and, inexplicably, there are no clues whatsoever. Sarel attends the magistrate's hearing and befriends the main witness, a local farmer named Koos Kok, who accompanied the widow when went she went out to look for her husband. Pretending to gather background material for a series of articles for the newspaper, Sarel investigates the murder while staying with Oom Koos, Tant Treinie and their daughter, Liena. Also nearby lives Prof. Mierdyk, who taught Sarel at university, with his daughter, Elsie. Mierdyk has gone mad since the death of his wife, while the pass also harbours a hermit called Windskut, who is seldom seen.... (Summary based on C.J. Langenhoven's original story, not the film itself)