(Re-)interpretations and (re-)creations in contemporary Afrikaans cinema : adapting popular non-fiction into popular film in Vergeet My Nie (Forget Me Not)

Abstract

Afrikaans film adaptations offer exciting opportunities for exploring the productive tensions between the source material and the adapted work. In this article, the authors aim to explore, by way of a case study, which key processes informed the screenwriter’s adaption process in writing Vergeet My Nie (Prinsloo, 2019). The authors also explain key concepts that help to retroactively reframe the screenwriter’s process, specifi cally (re-)interpretation, (re-) creation and fi delity. This process is critically contextualised in the feature fi lm collaborations between Huisgenoot, The Film Factory and kykNET, which operate within specific Afrikaans cultural and industrial structures. This article demonstrates how creative challenges of (re-) interpretation, (re-)creation and issues of fi delity can be overcome to deliver an adaptation that appeals to a popular mainstream viewership.