How a mother can be brought to kill her own son, Ellen Pakkies’ gripping true story.
☆☆☆☆
By: Laia Pascual Espinet
The controversial live-action feature film Ellen: The story of Ellen Pakkies (Ellen, Die Storie van Ellen Pakkies) is based on the real life events that shocked and divided the South African public. It is about Ellen a mother that kills her own son, and we are not made to hate her. The movie made by the director Daryne Joshua treats its difficult topic with sensitivity and respect. The film is about Abie a drug addicted boy and his family living in the most deprived part of Cape Town, South Africa. Already a trouble teen, when finding out he was born out of a rape, he becomes addicted to crystal meth and turns his anger against his parents making their life a living hell. The story, written by Amy Jephta, revolves around the life of Ellen and her toxic relationship with her son. Real life Abie Pakkies is played by Jarrid Geduld (Grimsby), Jill Levenberg, who plays Ellen in the film, does an extraordinary job putting herself in a skin of a mother who kills her own son. You can see and feel all the sorrow the woman had to handle for a lot of years and at the end of the movie you can if not condone, completely understand why she did what she did, driven by love for her son.
It’s thought-provoking just the idea of the movie: A mother kills her own son. However, the story behind it shows a lot more: various troubles, mistreatment abuses, robberies, and lies. It shows the public the real story of Ellen, the woman who had been abused and raped for years, who became pregnant and was obligated to have the son. Her own flesh and blood became a drug addict person and suffered from physical distress – a woman who has never had a choice in her whole life and despite all she kept fighting. This harrowing movie shows how the system failed Ellen when she begged for help since she could not afford therapy because as Abie stole all his parents savings to buy drugs. The women tried everything to protect her son from his bad habits and save him from committing any more crimes. The movie powerfully criticises drug and abuse situation in South Africa. In the film, Ellen’s character when talking to her lawyer she says a much-telling line: “I’ve been raped by different members of my family during a lot of years and I didn’t know that was rape.” These words show an intolerable lack of awareness and visibility regarding abuse that makes these situations acceptable in society.
It’s interesting and shocking the order in which the facts are presented, the film is a constant throwback while the murder trial of Abie Pakkies is happening and Ellen is charged with first-degree murder for the killing of her son. The story is insightful and is a constant reminder how easy it is to judge somebody without really knowing the reasons behind the facts.
In the end, Ellen had justice for once in her life and the judge acquitted her from prison. So, today Ellen is a motivational speaker who’s giving a voice to all the women who had been silently fighting against abuse in their community and, at the same time, she’s doing a social labor telling her story and speaking out loud about taboo topics. Despite the tragic facts, we can fully appreciate that this is a very moving story, presented with a lot of sensitivity and respect, showing that life is not just black and white.
Ellen has been selected for Seattle International Film Festival and screened at 2018 Rotterdam International Film Festival earlier this year.
