Apartheid-Era Drama 'The Smell of Apples' Delivers Subtle Horror Through a Child's Gaze
John Trengove's adaptation of Mark Behr's novel follows an 11-year-old boy in 1970s white South Africa, gradually uncovering the abuses and inequalities beneath his family's privileged life. The film's meticulous period detail and sunlit cinematography contrast with its chilling revelations.
The film marks a return to South African subject matter for Trengove after his less successful international feature "Manodrome." Production designer Birrie Le Roux reconstructed meticulous mid-1970s domestic environments, from school uniforms to patterned household textiles, while cinematographer Lennert Hillege bathed the frame in warm, summer light that deliberately undercuts the narrative's darker revelations. The source novel by Mark Behr, published in 1993, was itself a landmark of Afrikaans literature, and this adaptation premiered amid Venice Film Festival awards-season buzz, positioning it as a significant entry in the current festival circuit's slate of politically engaged cinema.
This film may resonate strongly with audiences grappling with how privilege and denial operate across generations, particularly in post-colonial societies still reckoning with historical abuses. By filtering apartheid-era horrors through a child's limited understanding, it could prompt viewers to examine their own inherited blind spots and the quiet complicity embedded in everyday domestic life. The contrast between sunlit aesthetics and moral rot may also challenge nostalgic depictions of the past, potentially influencing how similar historical dramas approach tone and perspective in the future.