Scheepers’ feature film ‘Landmyn’ illuminates inherited trauma within the family
Following on last year’s award-winning thriller Hen Nico Scheepers returns to the Silwerskerm Festival with Landmyn, an intimate drama about inherited trauma, obligation, and the impossible act of letting go.
For the first time in a decade, two sisters and a brother reunite for a winter holiday on the South African coast. Each of them has built a life elsewhere in an attempt to escape the instability of their childhood and the long shadow cast by their mother, Annatjie. The reunion goes off the rails when the sister visiting from abroad admits that she has invited their mother to join them.
Annatjie arrives like a storm and pulls the family back into old patterns of resentment, survival, and unfinished history. As the days pass, her presence begins to erode the distance they have tried to build between themselves and their past. Not even Annatjie’s pragmatic sister can keep up the effort of trying to build bridges. The children are forced to work out how much of their lives still fold in around her gravitational pull – and whether that grip can ever truly be broken.
Scheepers, a celebrated playwright and theatre director, won eight Silwerskerm Awards with his debut feature film Hen in 2025, while his television series Donkerbos likewise won several awards, including the Safta Award for best director. Landmyn is his second feature film and was filmed in just 16 days.
Questions for Nico Scheepers, writer-director
You don’t tread lightly with the opening of Landmyn – it kicks off with a loaded statement: “He hates his mother.” Elaborate on your choice of such a dramatic opening.
When it comes to real families and people who have to endure one another, you cannot tread lightly. I believe it is our responsibility as storytellers to move people, not merely entertain them. To make them think, and feel, and wonder. And feel ashamed. What a wonderful, uncomfortable experience – to feel ashamed in a dark theatre among strangers.
You made your feature film debut at the Silwerskerm Festival in 2025 with the thriller Hen. Is it easier to film a relationship drama? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two genres?
I think in many respects Landmyn was even more difficult than Hen. Give me 45-degree heat in the middle of nowhere any day over all these delicate emotions trapped together in a house. That is precisely why we had to make it! The simplicity of the story, and our approach – one family, one house, one lens – was the box of constraints we deliberately built in order to play within.
In terms of genre, I hope to work in every single one. The breadth and possibilities of stories lie open before us. I watch everything. So I want to make everything. Next, hopefully sci-fi, or fantasy. Or a fantasy thriller. Who knows? I am just grateful for the opportunity to explore all these different story worlds and characters, and to hopefully offer people something more honest and authentic each time.
You refer to the film as “chamber music”. An interesting choice of words, as this is not a soothing, delicate theme – and there is a scene or two that sends a chill down your spine! How do you interpret your approach?
Honesty. Landmyn is not about how we want to be, but about how we are. People are complex, messy beings who cause just as much hurt as they heal – especially with ourselves, and with those who are supposed to be closest to us: our family.
I don’t want to tell stories that comfort and soothe viewers and make them feel better about aspects of themselves they want to hide. Come sit in the dark and be honest with yourself. Families are difficult. Not all homes are good homes. And surviving together in spite of it all also deserves a story.
You are an award-winning playwright and theatre director. How has this background helped you with the writing and filming of Landmyn? Please also elaborate on the choice of actors and the process.
While I was writing the film, I was involved with Anna-Mart (van der Merwe), Carla (Smith), and Ben (Albertyn) in a theatre process for the production Speelgoed van glas. It was a wonderful opportunity, because I was able to spend time with them long before filming began, and there was already a good rapport and shared work ethic. With Nicole Holm, I would tackle any mountain – and Dhania (Schultz) and Juan-Christoff (Smith, Carla’s younger brother) slipped into our pool like fish in water. It was a wonderful process. Difficult too, but nothing worth doing is easy. The actors are the heart of the film. Their dedication and fearlessness are astounding. Anna-Mart is one of the finest people I know, and she went to a very dark place to find Annatjie.
And what is happening on the television and theatre front?
I am currently writing my first book, working on a new Afrikaans drama series, while my new stage play, Leefbaar, has made its debut at the Free State Arts Festival.