Killing Heat

Killing Heat
English-language release
Directed by Michael Raeburn
Produced by Mark Forstater
Catharina Stackelberg
Written by Doris Lessing
Michael Raeburn
Based on The Grass is Singing
by Doris Lessing
Starring Karen Black
John Thaw
John Kani
Patrick Mynhardt
John Moulder Brown
Margaret Heale
Music by Lasse Dahlberg
Björn Isfält
Cinematography Bille August
Edited by Thomas Schwalm
Distributed by Chibote
Swedish Film Institute
Release date
 2 September 1982 (Australia)
Running time
 105 minutes
Country Sweden
Australia
Zambia
Language English

Killing Heat (released in Sweden as Gräset sjunger) is a 1981 film based on Doris Lessing's 1950 novel The Grass Is Singing. It stars Karen Black and John Thaw and was filmed in Zambia and Sweden. The film was released in Zimbabwe as The Grass is Singing. Apart from the change of the title, possibly to pander to the US market for violence, the urban life depicted in the film would not have existed in Livingstone in the 1960s, or the 1940s for that matter. The film's interiors were reportedly filmed in Sweden, whereas the exteriors were shot in Zambia. The film deals with the issues of colonialism, the white man's role in Africa, and the relationships between the races and genders. The cultural differences between the races also play a cryptic part in the storyline - some aspects of which will be opaque to viewers without local knowledge. Possibly the film expects viewers to be familiar with the novel. There may be an actual case which inspired the novel.

Plot

The film purportedly takes place in South Africa in the 1960s (unlike the novel which was set in Southern Rhodesia pre-1950). Mary, a city woman, marries a farmer named Dick Turner. Mary leaves the comfortable familiarity of her urban life and goes to live on Dick's struggling farm. Mary has little experience handling Africans as servants or employees and is harsh and tactless in her treatment of the African farm workers. Mary runs away by herself (to the town of Livingstone, crossing the bridge at Victoria Falls by train - which takes her into what was pre-1964 still Northern Rhodesia), only to find that she cannot get her old job back, and has nowhere to take permanent refuge and no means of financial support. She returns to the farm. Mary slowly becomes insane and breaks the Rhodesian taboo of inter-racial over-familiarity with the African houseboy, Moses. After Mary and Moses are accidentally observed by a newly appointed farm manager in the act of taking what would be considered liberties, Dick decides to send Mary away from the farm. Learning of Mary's forthcoming departure, Moses murders Mary during a rainstorm. Moses is arrested by the police and led off in handcuffs. [1]

Cast

References

  1. ↑ ": Grass is Singing, The".
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