Movies of War

Mar 6, 2026 4:18am PT Rotterdam Tiger Award Winner ‘Variations on a Theme’ Explores History’s Long Shadow Through Lyrical Lens, Releases Trailer (EXCLUSIVE) By Christopher Vourlias Plus Icon Christopher Vourlias Latest Both Worlds, Freeli Films Launch First U.S.-Africa Co-Production Partnership for Microdramas, With Taye Diggs Set to Star (EXCLUSIVE) 1 day ago Thessaloniki Agora Head on How ‘Resilience,’ ‘Investment’ in Future Power Documentary Festival’s Industry Arm Through ‘Difficult Times’ 2 days ago Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Head on AI, Separating Fact From Fiction and Why Documentaries Are Needed ‘Now More Than Ever’ 2 days ago See All Courtesy of IFFR As much a lyrical ode to rural South African life as a clear-eyed interrogation of history’s lingering impact on often marginalized communities, Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s “Variations on a Theme” wowed audiences in Rotterdam, where it took home the top prize in the main Tiger Competition. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer at the Joburg Film Festival, where it plays in competition this week. Set in the small town of Kharkams, in South Africa’s mountainous Kamiesberg region, the film follows an elderly goat herder, Hettie, who falls victim to a scam promising long-overdue reparations for her father’s WWII service. As she waits for money that will never come, the disruptions of her 80th birthday threaten to strip away the last of her independence. Related Stories 'Sinners' Star Wunmi Mosaku Has 'Not Been Able to Celebrate' Her Oscar Nomination Because of the 'Killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE': How Could I 'Enjoy the Moment?' Ted Sarandos Responds to Donald Trump's Call to Fire Board Member Susan Rice: 'He Likes to Do a Lot of Things on Social Media' Structured as a series of recurring “variations,” and accompanied by Mikhaila Alyssa Smith’s evocative score, the film was praised by Variety’s Guy Lodge for its “warmly observational, literary quality” that is “lovingly attentive to language and local custom.” Lodge described the directors’ docufiction as “a short but searching portrait of a Northern Cape community still burdened by history.” Popular on Variety Here’s an exclusive look at the trailer: “Variations” follows on the success of Jacobs and Delmar’s debut feature, “Carissa,” a coming-of-age story set within a rural Cape Colored community that premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand in 2024. With their sophomore effort, the directors wanted to make a film about the “unsung heroes in our community,” according to Jacobs, in part as an act of remembrance and in part as an act of defiance to “rail against the idea that our history is lost to us.” The swindle at the heart of “Variations” is based on a real-life scam targeting the elderly in the rural community of Kharkams, where Jacobs’ grandmother lives. The reparations racket was allegedly designed to redress the wrongs perpetrated against Black and Colored conscripts returning from the Second World War, who, as Jacobs puts it, received nothing more than “a jacket, a bicycle, a pair of boots.” As the film broadens its lens to encompass Hettie’s neighbors, seamlessly slipping in and out of their inner dialogues to reveal their frustrations and sorrows and dreams, it becomes a rich, empathetic portrait of what Jacobs describes as “those who are living with the consequences of that violent past.” The directors have been artistic collaborators for more than a decade. “Variations” draws on their shared interest in history — “particularly South African history, and particularly Cape history,” said Delmar — and how that history continues to shape contemporary South African life, especially among the country’s underprivileged and often marginalized communities. “It’s the same groups that are constantly at the brunt of this violence,” Delmar said. “Throughout history, it’s just this cycle of violence that keeps repeating itself. The people that are losing out are always losing out.” “Variations” centers on Hettie, played by Jacobs’ grandmother, Hettie Farmer, making her acting debut. Jacobs describes her as a natural-born storyteller, a generous and big-hearted matriarch able to carry both a family and a community on her shoulders and bursting with “this resilience to live, and this resilience to make it through.” “My grandmother is an example of matriarchal support that is all about the healing of the lineage,” said Jacobs. “She beams love and she beams light.” Farmer joined a mixed cast of seasoned and non-professional actors, perhaps none of whom delivered a greater surprise than the 79-year-old when she stepped in front of the camera for her first scene. “Oh my gosh, this woman is an actor!” Jacobs said, recalling his shock. He laughed. “She is an international superstar at the moment.” Farmer was raised in Bethelsklip, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, a pastoral region lovingly captured in the frame of cinematographer Gray Kotzé. “My grandmother grew up in nature, in the veld, and she’s always had a passion for remembering the land, remembering the past,” Jacobs said. “It’s my grandmother that encouraged me to take a lot more pride in the work that I do in relation to the people where I’m from, the landscapes that I occupy as an Indigenous storyteller.” Written by Jacobs and Delmar, “Variations on a Theme” is produced by Kraal in co-production with Meria Productions and Interakt. Producers are Annemarie du Plessis, Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar, Mira Mendel and Nikkie Thie. Kraal is handling world sales. Through two features, Jacobs and Delmar have quickly established themselves as two of the continent’s most exciting filmmakers to watch, planting their stake “as proudly regional filmmakers with a lyrical sensibility to stand beside that of fellow Southern African auteur Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese,” in the words of Variety’s Lodge. Centering the experience of South Africa’s Cape Colored community in a way that is rarely accomplished on screen with such empathy and grace also makes them proud flagbearers for a post-apartheid generation still wrestling with that system’s racist and brutal legacy — a generation that is increasingly defining itself on its own terms. “I’m deeply honored to be telling these stories with the people I’m telling them with. But also to be part of a generation that doesn’t sit in victimhood,” said Jacobs, “but that really celebrates and honors and also challenges what does Indigenous storytelling look like and what does it mean. How are we telling these stories? Who are we telling these stories for?” The Joburg Film Festival runs March 3 – 8 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jump to Comments Prison Thriller ‘Wasteman,’ Starring David Jonsson and Tom Blyth, Getting U.S. Theatrical Release With Sunrise Films (EXCLUSIVE) JavaScript is required to load the comments. Loading comments...