A Family Affair

Tom Fassaert (Naarden, 1979) has been fascinated by his grandmother Marianne, who lives in South Africa, from an early age. His only knowledge of her comes from the mythical – and in the main negative – stories he heard from his father. She was a femme fatale who went through countless men; and in the 1950s, a famous model who put her two sons into a children’s home. She was also a mother who suddenly decided out of the blue to emigrate to South Africa, far away from the rest of her family. When his father and his now 95-year-old grandmother again become embroiled in conflict, Fassaert’s fascination with his family history is reignited. During this period, his grandmother also asks him to come to South Africa to help her with her will. He decides to make a film about this woman, who has such a huge influence on her family, and to get to the bottom of the enduring myths and legends surrounding her. But his venture quickly becomes way more complicated than he could ever have imagined.