Keyan tomaselli biography of william

1984 South African film

Boetie Gaan Border Toe is a 1984 satire film set during the South African Border War. The film was directed by Regardt van den Bergh, and stars Arnold Vosloo, Frank Dankert and Frank Opperman.

Production was assisted by the South African Defence Force (SADF).^[1]

Plot

Boetie van Tonder, a young Afrikaner, faces conscription into the South African military. Although initially determined to resist national service and defy instruction, he quickly finds comfort in the company of his fellow conscripts as they weather the harshness of basic training and their subsequent deployment to the Angolan border.^[2]

Cast

Reception

Literary analyst Monica Popescu described Boetie Gaan Border Toe and its sequel, Boetie Op Manoeuvres, as works which essentially romanticised the South African Border War and devoted a disproportionate amount of emphasis to the "chivalrous conduct of SADF soldiers".^[3]Keya