The Fourth Reich
Manie Van Rensburg (Director), David Selvan (Producer), Malcolm Kohll (Screenwriter), Louis Van Niekerk (Actor), Ryno Hattingh (Actor), Grethe Fox (Actor), Marius Weyers (Actor), Elize Cawood (Actor), Zastron Films (Production company), Trans Atlantic Entertainment (Distributor)
Based on the book For Volk and Führer, by Hans Strydom, this film was originally shot as a television mini-series before being edited for screening in cinemas. It is the story of Robey Leibbrandt, an Afrikaans boxer turned revolutionary, who planned to assassinate the South African prime minister, General Jan Smuts, after World War Two, because he was pro-British. The film opens with the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where Leibbrandt is recruited by the German government after they learn of his support for the National Socialist Party's ideology and his admiration for Hitler whom he considered to have created a miracle in Germany. The next few years are spent training in Germany. In South Africa, prior to WWII the Ossewabrandwag, an ultra-conservative nationalist organization, had been formed to resist cooperation with the British. They took on the Nazi ideologies of nationalism and anti-semitism and Leibbrandt secretly entered South-West Africa (Namibia) to persuade members of the group to join him in overthrowing the Union government by committing acts of sabotage on power and railway lines. The Fourth Reich focuses on Leibbrandt's preparations for the assassination of Jan Smuts and on the policeman whose job it is to track him down before the mission can be accomplished. The film is a good depiction of South African life in the early 1940s, including the influence of the Nazis on the country's politics. It was often shot on location and portrays the beauty of the South African landscape to great effect
DVD Video, English, 1990
Zastron Films, [South Africa], 1990