Overview

Two folkloric pieces of Afrikaaner storytelling eloquently deal with liberation from an oppressive matriarchal order, Missing and Crossing.

Missing: A mother keeps her daughter under strict supervision at their poor, remote farm during the depression. On one haunting night, the anniversary of mysterious disappearances of young women from their homes, a blind constable arrives to protect them. He is actually a Harlequin who opens the door and encourages the girl to dance out into the night.

Crossing: Two sisters, one severe and straight, the other hunch backed but beautiful, run a guest house on the bank of a remote, mighty river. They consider it their sacred duty to warn travelers of the river's danger in flood, offer shelter and bury those drowned, giving each a named white cross. Otherwise the spirits of the dead haunt them. On a stormy night in 1930, the sisters hold a seance to discover the name of a spirit who is annoying them, but the quest leads to a surprising flashback and an unexpected liberation.