CALVINIA follows a 40-year-old man who returns to his hometown in rural South Africa to visit his elderly father. His journey oscillates between memories of his childhood on a sheep farm in the 1980s and present-day images of people and places from his past, still familiar but weathered by the passage of time. A journey of self-discovery unfolding in concentric circles, CALVINIA evokes the nostalgia of childhood memories within the complex socio-political realities of a fractured society.

Dir. Rudi van der Merwe - 50min - 2022 - Switzerland

"A generous and elegantly constructed film, made of encounters, moments of solitude and flirting, mixing the past with the present, in a journey that feels like a farewell." - Visions du Reel

"beautifully constructed...This poetically rendered film documents the physical and social landscape of the small South African town of Calvinia and the impact that apartheid’s twisted value system continues to have on people’s lives." - Encounters

"a lyrical personal essay composed of family vignettes, social media chats, the weight of his own memories and the ghosts of his past." - The Africa Report

"Calvinia is a rural town blessed with a magnificently scenic landscape, where towering mountain ranges give way to far-reaching plains. It is also the birthplace of film-maker Rudivan der Merwe, whose documentary ode, with its triptych structure guided by childhood memories, is both a pilgrimage and farewell to his home town." - Guardian