André Brink

Synopsis

Documentary directed by Jean-Marc Giri and Jean-Marc Bouzou for Arte France.

“ When I was in jail, you changed my way to see the world”, said Nelson Mandela to Andre Brink once he became president. Andre Brink ? “ A Dry White Season”, winner of the Prix Medicis étranger award in 1982, of course.

Who is hidding behind this powerful work, one or two novel of whom had without doubt contributed to change the course of history. André Brink’s life is a part of the South Africa’s life since the apartheid establishment until today. It’s an artist life fully lived. A life of struggle, of women, of travels, of meetings. It’s an intellectual life since the 50’ with Camus as a model and May 68 as a decisiv experience.

How do you free yourself from the « Boer » conservatives values from your childhood ? How do you resist to the calling of a confortable exil in Paris to walk into the lion’s den and publish subversive novels ? That’s what we would like to explore with him.