It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a slow burner but all the more satisfying for that. I like to get to the crux of a movie and here it is all about self denial. A closet homosexual who lives his life in complete denial of his sexual self. The scene where the men get together to indulge in an orgy but specify that no homosexuals are allowed makes the point without any preamble. The tension surrounds the main character's desire for a straight young man, you can feel his lust build and build and you know that is going to lead him to do something terrible and it does. The aftermath is very realistic, almost anti climatic but so many rape cases are not reported (especially male rape) that I felt it was wholly believable. I am not LGB or T but you don't have to be to get the message being portrayed here: suppression of your true self is a dangerous thing. One thing I discovered while looking into this movie was that there is a Queer Palm at Cannes, if it encourages more films like this it can only be a good thing.

Drawn out with too many loose ends. Too much contemplation in the lead actor part. If you can read minds, you might like the movie. Are we led to believe that the guy he attempted to rape, is at the bottom of the pool, or did he actually get what he went to the room for? If not, what the heck happened? Was all forgiven, or was the last bank withdrawal a payoff for silence? The movie just suddenly leaves you hanging, feeling you've wasted an hour and a half of your time. It's ashamed too, because it had the makings of a really good movie. The movie is about a repressed, screwed up guy with too much time and money on his hands. They could've done a much better job of telling the story. One moment you think it might be going somewhere, then all of a sudden it's all over the place, again. The script didn't allow the full potential of the actors. I can't believe it was nominated for any type of award. You'll likely be left thinking, "What the hell just happened" and not in a good way.

I agree largely with ottoman-umpire's comments. Each scene lingered 10-15 seconds longer than necessary. Sometimes less is more, and certainly in this case I felt that throughout the film. Had it been better edited, it could have built the tension more effectively in a decent 60-minute film.That would also have allowed the addition of a more satisfactory ending. When I saw it, you could almost hear every member of the audience saying to themselves "Is that it?" when the film ended - no resolution, no punishment of Francois for what he had done, no indication of what Francois was thinking/feeling as he watched the gay couple at the end, and whether he learned or grew as a result of what happened (i.e. character development). The movie didn't show him to have any redeeming qualities (in my opinion) so in the end I was hoping he would either be punished for the rape or at least come to grips with his homo- or bi-sexuality and do something positive about it.Also, as Christian was a law student, I thought it likely he wouldn't let things rest and would either go to the police or try to blackmail Francois to get the money he wanted (he may have done, but the purpose of the money in the last scene is not stated).All in all, an interesting but frustrating experience.

In Hermanus's sophomore feature we receive a character study about a repressed Afrikaner homosexual family-man, who starts obsessing about his nephew. A movie focused solely on the main character, not a likable man by any length due to his bubbling volcanoes of sexual frustration coupled with a culturally inflicted hate towards moffies (gays) and blacks.Enough said that the rating means I liked the movie, despite it's slow pacing and vague storytelling. I must say however that my review is more a direct response to JvH48 review, which I found very lacking and miscommunicated.1) "An indirect result of falsely reporting his car stolen (why?), is that uncle and nephew finally meet." After the car was stolen he reported it to his family and this resulted in his daughter being told of this fact and hurriedly ending her beach day with Christian. The uncle and nephew finally meet as the first called the latter to have him picked up.2) "Their conversation seems not to run very smoothly, however. The dialogue falters very often, seemingly no stepping stone for meeting again." Their conversation was not intended to run smoothly. It was supposed to be awkward for Christian.3) "Nevertheless, they continue talking in the uncle's hotel room (why?)." Christian wanted to borrow money from his rich uncle, hence he went with him to the hotel room to further discuss the loan. As it is between uncle and nephew he found it a natural family occurrence... Most likely the money retrieved from the bank in the penultimate scene is for Christian and his business.4) "Though what happened in the hotel room can be expected to have severe impact on family relationships, we see no reference to it in any later scene. At least the daughter should know, given her close relation with the nephew." No. That is exactly the point. This occurrence was kept hidden within the family. The movie seems to say that in the Afrikaner culture swiping all the dirt under the carpet is just a way of life. Hence apart from Christian's family cutting ties with Francois and his family the attempted rape had no direct consequences.4) "For example, the uncle buys an IPod (with o) for this nephew, after hearing that he was in need of an IPad (with a). We see him carrying the IPod along all the time, but never gets the chance to hand it over and have his mistake exposed." Why? Why did the mistake have to be exposed? The iPod served it's purpose as an symbol of Francois's obsession.5) "And with this closing scene still on our minds, we were sent home without a clue how everything ties together, nor how it makes logical sense." The movie ends with Francois paying out money, most likely to give them to Christian, given his remorse for what happened (also the scenery in the background is Cape Town, but only a knowledgeable observer would notice). After going to the bank Christian by chance sees a couple of gays kiss in a restaurant and feels envious about them and sad about his life. End movie. Everything nicely tied in together and the movie is beautifully punctuated.