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POPPIE

By Oscar BARBY

Thriller - Development 2017

A young American surveyor arrives in a seemingly idyllic South African town and finds himself the prime suspect in a series of murders.

- Year of production
- 2017
- Genres
- Thriller
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Oscar BARBY
- Writer(s)
- Oscar BARBY
- Producer(s)
- Jennifer MOSTERT (ANTAGONIST STUDIOS)
- Synopsis
- Freddie Astley is a land surveyor, recently out of college from Chicago, who is sent to Bulwer an idyllic South African dorp (village) in KwaZulu-Natal to survey the neighbouring hills and valleys for minerals and metals. This is Freddie’s first trip outside of the USA.
  
  Freddie rents a room with the most prominent landowner in the town, Jannie van der Westhuizen, and meets his daughter, Christina, the local “Poppie” and a major catch for any of the dorp’s men, who queue up to court her.
  
  Freddie soon finds himself out of his depth, living in a traditional Afrikaner household and the object of Christina’s affections and she, amused by his awkward responses to her advances, teases him relentlessly.
  
  Shortly after Freddie’s arrival the town is rocked by the murder of one of Christina’s many suitors. The local police suspect Freddie until Christina, against her father’s express wishes, comes to his defense giving him an alibi.
  
  Freddie continues with his survey work in the surrounding countryside and stumbles upon a seam of gold in a valley owned by the local Church. When he tells Christina and her father, Jannie, the two of them set aside their differences, manipulating Freddie into delaying his report of the find to his Chicago office, for the benefit of the town. Freddie agrees, and unbeknownst to him, Jannie makes the Church an offer to buy the valley.
  
  Meanwhile, the murders continue, in a seemingly random pattern and the town’s people start to realize that no-one is safe and Freddie, the outsider in the town, becomes the prime suspect, and this time he has no alibi. Jannie is convinced that Freddie is the murderer and demands that Freddie and Christina cut ties. Christina breaks with Afrikaner ways where a daughter always obeys her father and defies him causing a massive rift in their relationship.
  
  When the mutilated body of an important figure in the community is discovered, even the local police are stunned into immobility. As tensions mount, it becomes unclear who is responsible for the murders, and idyllic Bulwer’s past secrets and misdeeds come bubbling to the surface as the dorp threatens to tear itself apart.