A Northern Cape granny makes her film debut at 80. Her grandson accepts the same award that Christopher Nolan did. The film screens in SA cinemas for just one week in May!
Northern Cape, South Africa (29 April 2026) – An award-winning, critically acclaimed South African film, which was born from the mountains of the Northern Cape, is coming to select cinemas across the country for just one week!
Variations on a Theme, from 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Jason Jacobs and co-director Devon Delmar, opens on Friday, 8 May over Mother’s Day weekend for a limited run at cinemas in Cape Town and Joburg.
The 65-minute film is set in Kharkams in the Northern Cape and follows Ouma Hettie, a 79-year-old goat herder who falls prey to a scam promising long-overdue reparations for her father’s service in World War II. It is fictional, but only just so.
“My great-grandfather fought for the Allies in World War II,” says Jacobs, who narrates the film. “He was 19 when he signed up. Like many others, he must have returned with his head full of nighttime terrors: of artillery fire and screams heard in dark and foreign lands, of bombs, falling planes and burning cities. His payment after four years of service? At the harbour in Cape Town, before heading home to his goats, he received a pair of boots and a bicycle.”
The film is built on that tender history.
“While our film is fictional, it’s based on lived experiences,” says co-director Devon Delmar. “This includes the scam. In many ways, this is yet another variation on a theme: that this community is still waiting, hoping and persevering, just as they’ve been since 1945.”
Jacobs and Delmar have garnered international attention for their work. Their debut feature, Carissa, premiered at Venice. Variations on a Theme then took the top prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Tiger Award, putting them in the company of a certain two-time Oscar winner, Christopher Nolan, who won the same award for his debut feature, Following.
The film was cast entirely from the local Kharkams community. The lead role of Ouma Hettie is played by Jacobs’ own grandmother, Hettie Farmer, who made her film debut at 80 to critical acclaim, including a notice in Variety. Gladwin van Niekerk, a breakout star from Carissa, returned for this film and made the journey from Kharkams all the way to Rotterdam to collect the Tiger Award alongside the directors.
The accolades have continued to stack up. Variations on a Theme won Best African Film at the Joburg Film Festival. In April 2026, it screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and at New Directors/New Films, the prestigious annual programme co-presented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center in New York. At this year’s SAFTAs, the film’s production collective, KRAAL, received the Outstanding Provincial Contribution Award for their work in the Northern Cape.
Before its cinema run, the film came home. In March this year, a three-night red carpet community screening was held in Kharkams, where the cast and community celebrated the film’s awards together.
Variations on a Theme is a KRAAL film, presented by The National Film and Video Foundation in association with The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. It is co-produced by Meria Films and Interakt, with support from The Hubert Bals Fund, The Doha Film Institute, L’Institut Français, Le Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image, and The Carthage-Pro/Takmil.
It screens for a week from Friday, 8 May 2026 in Cape Town at The Labia and Ster-Kinekor V&A Nouveau, as well as in Johannesburg at The Bioscope and Ster-Kinekor Rosebank Nouveau.
Sources: Plot Twist.
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