Abstract
In this paper the author deconstructs the role of the Hero character in a sample of South African- or Anglo-Boer War1 case study films. The author argues that the Boer soldier, one of the prominent figures of White “Afrikaner” history, has been transformed into a mythical hero during the past century. The key question the author investigates is how the predominant historical myth of a community (in this case that of the White South African “Afrikaner”) influence the narratives told by its popular culture. Starting with the first South African “talkie” film, Sarie Marais, the Boer hero-archetype has been used as a vehicle for ideological messages in an attempt to construct White Afrikaner identity from an Apartheid Nationalist Party perspective. Through investigating the various archetypical guises of the Boer Hero in the films Die Kavaliers, Verraaiers, and Adventures of the Boer War the author reflects on how the various case studies’ historical contexts directly correlate with the filmmaker’s representation of the hero. Therefore, the predominant ideology or the identity that the creator subscribes to directly influences the representation of the hero figure in the story.