| Arende | |
| Director: | Dirk de Villiers |
| Starring: | Ian Roberts Gavin van den Berg Diane Wilson Keith Grenville Percy Sieff |
| Music: | Louis van Rensburg |
| Cinematography: | Jakes de Villiers |
| Editing: | Thys de Wit |
| Distributor: | C-Films |
| Runtime: | 101 min. |
| Language: | Afrikaans English Dutch |
Arende, is a 1994 South African action war film film, directed by Dirk de Villiers.[1] [2] The film stars Ian Roberts and Gavin van den Berg in lead roles along with Diane Wilson, Keith Grenville and Percy Sieff in supportive roles.[3] It is a continuation of the Arende TV series that preceded it.
The film received positive reviews and won several awards at international film festivals.[4]
The film is set during the Anglo Boer War. It depicts the life of the rebellious Boer farmer Sloet Steenkamp and the Captain of the British Army James Kerwin.[5]
The film follows Sloet Steenkamp after his is subsequent capture by the British. Sloet is originally sentenced to execution for treason, due to his past as a British citizen originally from the Cape Colony that joined the war on the Boer side; his execution is commuted to life imprisonment and imprisonment on Saint Helena Island. This highly motivates him to escape as unlike the other prisoners who will be released after the war, he instead expects to remain imprisoned. The film details his ultimately unsuccessful attempts at escaping the island. It ends with the death of two fellow inmates and the attempted kidnapping of the island's governor to demand better medical care, and a race with Captain Kerwin that ends in the death of another Boer prisoner -and friend of Sloet's- just as the end of the Boer War is announced.