Black Butterflies (2011)

73% of critics liked it
(11 reviews)
64% of users liked it
(740 ratings)

Poetry, politics, madness, and desire collide in the true story of the woman hailed as South Africa's Sylvia Plath. In 1960s Cape Town, as Apartheid steals the expressive rights of blacks and whites alike, young Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten) finds her freedom scrawling verse while frittering… More Poetry, politics, madness, and desire collide in the true story of the woman hailed as South Africa's Sylvia Plath. In 1960s Cape Town, as Apartheid steals the expressive rights of blacks and whites alike, young Ingrid Jonker (Carice van Houten) finds her freedom scrawling verse while frittering through a series of stormy affairs. Amid escalating quarrels with her lovers and her rigid father, a parliament censorship minister (Rutger Hauer), the poet witnesses an unconscionable event that will alter the course of both her artistic and personal lives. -- (C) Tribeca

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Paula Van der Oest
Written By: Greg Latter
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Mar 2, 2012 Limited
Studio: Tribeca Films

Critic Reviews

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Van Houten ... gives a strong performance as Jonker, and the cinematography is pleasing, but the script is cliché-ridden and ends on an overly sentimental note.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
The movie reminds you of the extent to which poetry has been marginalized as a cultural force since the early 1960s.
Rex Reed, New York Observer
Black Butterflies is a dark, moving depiction of the life and death of a brave rebellious, idiosyncratic woman who made significant strides toward changing the world around her and paid a heavy toll for her passion.
Nick Schager, Village Voice
Art, politics, and craziness conspire to form a rather mechanical melodrama in Black Butterflies...
Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter
Paula van der Oest's biopic of South African poet Ingrid Jonker is conventional yet captivating thanks in large part to a terrific lead performance from Carice van Houten.
Ronnie Scheib, Variety
The uncompromising power of Ingrid Jonker's poetry runs like a pulsing vein through Black Butterflies, a 1960s-set drama whose several strong points include the angry intensity of Carice van Houten's fearless perf.
Sam Adams, AV Club
Black Butterflies scarcely tries to illuminate the substance of Jonker's writing.
Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
Always feels like a life schematically condensed rather than intimately explored.
Leslie Stonebraker, New York Press
Black Butterflies is the sad human poetry of the lost souls who slip beneath the waves to echo in our collective consciousness.
Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com
The screenplay defiantly never softens [Ingrid] Jonker, but challenges the audience to take her or leave her.
Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine
As far as middlebrow biopics go, it may not break any molds, but it's a reasonably sensitive and occasionally insightful look into the mind and psyche of an impassioned and deeply troubled artist.