Tod in Namibia

Nhadiep is a Namibian who is killing his own people; namely farm labourers. The Namibian peoples believe him to be a mythical man - who is like the wind.

Anton van Heerden (Sean Bean), a news cameraman, is sent to work with veteran news journalist, Charles Rutherford (John Hurt). Charles is making an in-depth news story about this strange and illusive renegade Nhadiep. Anton becomes fascinated with the story and gets deeply involved in finding out more of Nhadiep.

Is Nhadiep real or a phantom killer? Will the authorities ever catch this serial killer?

An intriguing story that I found myself drawn into. Worth a watch if you ever come across this rare film.

8/10.

Instead of hitting one over the head with this film, this movie allows you to feel a period in South Africa through the actor and the actual country. It is a careful and slow paced film about the problems of South Africa during a specific period of time. Fortunately, some of those problems have been resolved, but the power of this film is that it was filmed in the country of origin. You can be moved by the atmosphere, the surroundings, and the plot which does keep one guessing for quite a while. Sean Bean is stunning both physically, and as ALWAYS perfection acting-wise, as the central character in this film. His stillness and emotional range at the same time will transfix you to stay on board throughout the film. You keep wondering if he will make, or if the other central character will make it, but this film does not charge at you and beat you over the head with the message. The message is the film, and it is delivered by a seamless craftsman, Sean Bean, and an elder statesman of film, John Hurt. Not to be missed.

This moody, mystery (of a sort) is a real gem. I enjoyed it from beginning to end and my only complaint is that it ended too quickly! Sean Bean has an amazing facility with accents and demonstrates his wonderful acting ability in the von heerdon character - showing the embarrasment,anger and angst that an elightened afrikaaner feels about the apartheid-bound stupidities in his world. John Hurt also does a good job with the older journalist who condemns but in effect condones because he wont question the system. All this is wrapped up in the search for a killer - a killer that becomes more to von heerden than a story. Without giving anything away, the end of the movie, while totally predictable, is so angst-filled that i ended up crying for von heerden. Oh, and catch the music at the end of the film - great stuff!

This movie was beautifully done. Although it is paced slowly, the suspense kept me glued to the screen. The ending was a bit too abrupt, however.

With great actors such as Sean Bean and John Hurt this is really an amazing movie with great cinematography and a larger than life type story that is both bright and well written.

On the acting side Bean did his do's and is more believable than most actors acting Afrikaners in almost every movie, (ahooy Mr Shucks) Windprints was a brilliant piece to watch and it is kind of sad that it was banned in its country of origin, South-Africa. But hell if you really want to watch it, pay a visit to the South-African film Archive in Pretoria. That is the only facility with a copy.