Breaking the Yard (streaming, Academic Video Online)
The film tells an intimate story of change from generation to generation in family life. It illuminates a murky impasse between families, when villagers, taking sides, tell the truth as many different truths or whisper with threats of scandal.
The focus is on John, a church minister and a leading village elder, trained in settling disputes in the South African mines. John gets entangled in the troubled affairs of a quarrelsome young couple, a stay-at-home farmer and his police constable, town-savvy wife. They claim to be still in love. But when the husband confesses to adultery – ‘breaking the yard’ in Tswana terms – and the wife decides to fight for her rights in court, John finds himself in an awkward position. Even with his own bishop, he struggles to reach a good resolution. This remains uncertain, as arguments in the village’s customary court turn from adultery issues to putting his and other elders’ care for the couple into question.