Proteus (2003) on Netflix
NR20031h 42mDramaHistoryRomance
On Robben Island, herder Claas Blank and Dutch sailor Rijkhaart Jacobsz serve time. Initially hostile, they form a secret bond. A Scottish botanist befriends Claas for his plant knowledge.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/10739 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Set in eighteenth-century South Africa, the story turns on two prisoners held on Robben Island. Claas Blank, a Khoikhoi herder, serves a ten-year sentence for insulting a Dutch citizen. Rijkhaart Jacobsz, a Dutch sailor, was convicted for unnatural acts with another man. The two are initially hostile to each other. Their relationship shifts as they use trips to a private water tank to talk and draw closer, a bond shaped by the difference in their backgrounds, since Jacobsz is Dutch and Blank is Khoi. A Scottish botanist named Virgil Niven is drawn to Blank by his knowledge of South African flora, among them the protea, and is suggested to have a sexual interest in Blank.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Proteus (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
According to director John Greyson, the real Blank and Jacobsz began their relationship as teenagers, Blank was imprisoned on Robben Island at 16, and were known as a couple for twenty years before being charged with sodomy and executed when they were nearly 40.SPOILER
John Greyson packed the film with deliberate anachronisms, transistor radios, electric typewriters, jeeps and 1964 dress placed alongside 18th-century items, to argue that the homophobia and racism behind Blank and Jacobsz's executions are still present in the world.
