Filming an experience of a lifetime for extras

Date: 19 April 2013 By: Linda van der Westhuizen

History truly came alive as an international team filmed a documentary on the legendary Breaker Morant. Re-enactments of many of the scenes took place in the Soutpansberg, the location of the murders by Morant and the Bushveldt Carbineers for which two of them were eventually executed.

The budget for the documentary Morant, the retrial is one million Australian dollars. It  is being filmed on three continents - Australia, South Africa and the UK - and will be eventually aired on the History channel.

Saturday (13 April) and Sunday’s filming was done on the farm Nonyana (Driekoppies) of the Haasbroeks. Hardus Haasbroek cleared the bush and moved the fences for the place where the tent camp was set up. “This is unbelievable. It’s wonderful to learn so much about history and to have all the people on our farm," said Ariëte Haasbroek.

The general feeling among the local extras and onlookers, as well as descendants of the victims, was that the filming of the re-enactments so far has been “the experience of a lifetime”.  The scenes could, however, be described as quite violent and morose since all those who played Boers ended up dead.

“The premeditated murder of unarmed, sick and captured prisoners, witnesses, civilians and children” by the BVC towards the end of the Anglo-Boer war (1899 –1902) has been exposed in a book by local historian Charles Leach after some nine years of intensive research. Co-writer  and co-director Nic Bleszynski from Australia, on the other hand, feels that it is grossly unfair that Morant and Handcock had been singled out and made scapegoats by the British Empire. The BVC was largely an Australian regiment that fought for the British. Leach was invited to be involved in the preparations and was consulted on site during the filming by Breaker Productions of Australia, who co-produced with Sabido productions of South Africa. 

Though there are different views on the BVC episodes and Morant, no-one could disagree on what a handsome and winsome person lead actor Benedict Wall, a Kiwi based in Australia, is. He played the role of Morant and  spent many hours in the hot sun, waiting for the cameras to roll, by patiently and amicably chatting to the local people and posing for photos. The 31-year-old actor said that it was his first visit to South Africa and that he was having a wonderful time. “The filming was challenging, but it was good. The challenge was that they added a scene where Morant  finds out about the death of his friend, Captain Hunt, and that sparked the murders,” Wall commented on the first day of filming.

Peter Handcock, who was executed with Morant in February 1902, is played by actor Aidan Lithgow of Johannesburg. The friendly Traverse Le Goff, also fromJohannesburg, plays the role of the third accused, George Witton, who was not executed and wrote a book called Scapegoats of the Empire. 

Gerrit Hendrik (27) played the role of Reverend Heese, who was murdered because he had witnessed the murder of eight Boers. When the eight Boers were executed in the re-enactment, some of the smaller children were worried about their daddies, but were happy to see them get up again.

It was quite ironic that the children who witnessed the filming helped to make holes in the Van Staden grave, so that the inside of the grave looked more rugged.

When the scene of the re-enactment of the murder of Van Staden and his two sons was filmed on Sunday (14th) the sky grew dark and thunder rumbled. The youngest son was very sick with fever and the father wanted a permit to get him to hospital. They were murdered by Morant and the BVC after they had to dig their own grave.

Earlier that day, co-writer Nic Bleszynski  remarked: “We can’t film all the murders. There are far too many.” That was during the filming of the murder of trooper Van Buuren, who had joined the British. Van Buuren was played by Eben Saayman (23) who acted like he had done it all his life. Little Isabella Marais (10) played one of the children who were to be taken to the concentration camp in the then Pietersburg. Isabella’s great-grandmother in actual life spent time in a concentration camp.

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Linda van der Westhuizen

Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.

More photos... 

Charles Leach (right) author of a book on the South African version of what happened when the BVC committed murders during the Anglo-Boer War, explains some details of his research of what happened when a joiner was shot by the BVC to Nic Bleszynski (left) from Australia, co-writer and co-director of the two–part documentary on Breaker Morant. The re-enactment of the scene where eight Boers who wanted to surrender were massacred by the BVC. Here they are on the wagon. To the right is Gregory Miller of Australia, producer, co-director and co-writer of the documentary. With the re-enactment of the scene of the execution of the eight Boers who wanted to surrender, some of the smaller children were worried about their daddies' being shot and were happy to see them get up again. Here the eight are lined up to be executed. The filming of the eight-Boers scene took the better part of three hours. Saturday (13 April) and Sunday’s filming was done on the farm Nonyana (Driekoppies) of the Haasbroeks. Hardus Haasbroek cleared the bush at the spots chosen for filming and moved the fences. “This is unbelievable. It’s wonderful to learn so much about history and to have all the people on our farm, “ said Ariëte Haasbroek. Pictured is Hardus Haasbroek with the Van Stadens' grave in the background. Hardus said it was quite an emotional experience when he and his farmworkers dug the grave. The re-enactment of the two Van Stadens' digging their own grave before all three Van Stadens were murdered. From left to right are the 18-year-old Roelf van Staden junior (played by Jaks Cronjé) and Roelf van Staden senior (played by Jan van Wyngaardt). In the wagon is the sick Chris van Staden (12) , played by Elardus Harris. Here he is peeping out from under the canvas. Little Isabella Marais (10) played one of the children who were to be taken to the concentration camp in the then Pietersburg. Isabella’s great-grandmother in actual life spent time in a concentration camp. Here she sits, reading the book of Charles Leach, The Legend of Breaker Morant is dead and buried, patiently waiting for her next scene to be filmed. Breaker Morant has heard the news of his coming trial. Handsome overseas actor Benedict Wall won the hearts of the extras and onlookers from the community with his patience during the many hours of waiting for the cameras to roll and his friendly way of relating to everyone around. Local historian Charles Leach (left) and emeritus history professor Prof Louis Changouin, sitting in the tent camp which was set up very impressively by the art director, Bathoni Robinson, and her team.