Rhode Island International Film Festival 2009

Meet the inmates of an architecture that captivates.

A surreal mockumentary about poor whites living on the fringes of the new South Africa, and the exquisite old apartment building that holds them in its thrall.

Cape Town, South Africa. Springbok Heights is a tightly-wound knot of studio apartments… An art-deco masterpiece and an anachronism in the new, democratic South Africa.

Like its all-white inhabitants, the building hasn't changed much in the last few decades, and tends to weave its residents into its mortar:

∙ Wouter Malan: Co-op Chairman, musical tendencies, greasy facial hair. Wouter was compelled to retire early from his career in physical education. Since then, the money has been tight.

∙ Hilda Steyn: Six-foot-three, impressively large hands. Hilda’s lived here all her adult life and has had a crush on Wouter since the day he moved in. But since undergoing elective surgery in the 1970s, Hilda lacks the one thing Wouter seeks most in a companion.

∙ Nathan Golding: Affluent, endearing, mentally disabled. The son Wouter never could have... but sweet Nathan is cultivating a relationship with an outsider.

A lesbian couple, a tragic architect and a not-unattractive specimen of vermin swell the socially-claustrophobic ranks of this tiny universe - which Springbok Heights strains to contain.

The film is the distillation of months of research and intimate interviews with long-term residents, revealing fundamental contradictions that betray the fragile perception of common events shared by inmates of the building. Expert commentary gives insight into the terrifyingly-beautiful qualities of a building that holds its inmates in its thrall.