Dark Silence on Sports Avenue

Dark Silence on Sports Avenue portrays the life of Ian Barker, an elderly man born to a wealthy family in Houghton, who is now forced to live in Bertrams, a working-class neighbourhood. Thinly-veiled beneath Ian’s light demeanour is a bitterness towards the changes South Africa went through at the end of Apartheid. He resents that his life has gone nowhere since then, but more so he resents his wealthy family for excluding him from their vast inheritance. The film weaves through moments in his life, using him as a vessel to explore questions of  South African identity. Desperate to maintain an image that is posh and regal, Ian Barker is a hidden but recognisable relic of whiteness in South Africa.