ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with how the sensibility is and was, to a degree, conveyed in films that hold the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) at their core. It draws on the examples and representations of some of the personal stories within broader considerations of fiction film narratives about the TRC, to explore some of the intangible losses. The chapter considers the ways in which post-apartheid film oversimplifies and ‘demystifies’ how apology, forgiveness, and moving forward happens. It examines in thinking about fiction films about the TRC from such a critical point of view and explains moments of narrative and emotional contradictions in the film Forgiveness. The chapter aims to provide two characters and themes: protagonist, Mrs Magda Grootboom silence in the face of the white perpetrator’s guilt and the film’s ability and emphasis even, in achieving forgiveness for Tertius Coetzee. The film seems to suggest an equivalency of pain, offers an overarching comment that everyone’s pain matters equally.
