(adapted from the novel The Classifier by Wessel Ebersohn)
Coming of age drama.
Log line
Two teenagers fall in love in a society where their love is illegal and punishable by law. It devastates not only their lives but also those of their families.
Alternative log line
A coming-of-age, the all-consuming power of first love and the destruction of many lives.
THE CLASSIFIER
Synopsis
A coming-of-age tale. The all-consuming power of first love and the destruction of many lives.
Series Synopsis
The story is inspired by true incidents and real people as it was experienced by a former employee in the office of the race classification in apartheid South Africa.
The poignant tale of the coming of age of CHRISSIE, who is white and RUTHIE. who is colored, in a racist environment. Their confusion about the world of the adults in their lives. Their understanding and interpretation of the politics and social norms of their society are sometimes funny, even hilarious but mostly very sad.
The activities of White youngsters to make money to enable them to buy the objects they desire, but their parents can’t afford or won’t allow, causes them to act in ways that their community does not approve of. The need to help a single mother support her family is a necessity in the Colored community.
Their worlds meet when teenage Chrissie falls in love with Ruthie. It leads to the destruction of Chrissie’s family and the fall of the house of cards that is Ruthie’s extended family, where some of the light-complexioned members pass for Whites, are employed in jobs reserved for Whites and live in areas reserved for Whites only.
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THE CLASSIFIER EPISODE ONE SYNOPSIS
ADULT CHRIS, (Chrissie), restless and deeply unhappy, lives in Maine, USA, far from South Africa, the country where he was born and grew up. He gets a phone call from his sister telling him that his mother is dying. During their conversation we learn that he ran away from home when he was fifteen and has never been back, not even for his father’s funeral. The call triggers powerful memories of their childhood and dominates his trip back to South Africa. On his back people and incidents remind him of the joys and ultimate tragedy that ended his childhood and abruptly plunged him into premature adulthood.
Chrissie’s FATHER is aloof, not involved with his family at all and leaves everything to their mother. The work he does to support his family is a mystery to his son. He doesn’t explain or even talk about it, in fact he seems to be secretly ashamed of it. His father is his hero and Chrissie strives to be like him.
Chrissie sees RUTHIE for the first time when they were both eleven and is immediately intrigued by her but he only watches her from a distance.
CHRISSIE, determined to buy a motor bike, has to save money. With his sister ANNIE and their cousin, ABRAHAM, they steal vases from graves to sell at MA PETERSEN’S flea market stall, RUTHIE helps her at the stall and Chrissie talks to her for the first time.
Chrissie is hopelessly in love with RUTHIE, a Colored girl with a very light complexion. Chrissie assumes she is White and only discovers she’s not, when he finds out that the dark-skinned, Ma Petersen, is in fact Ruthie’s mother, but it is too late and he is too young to understand the devastating consequences of this love, not only on both his and Ruthie’s lives but also the lives of their families.
Chrissie is confused about the different racial groups in his country and asks his mother about where they all come from and why the Afrikaners are the government, even though they are in the minority. She cannot answer and refers him to Father who decides to take him to work in the race classification office during his school holidays.
In the last scene of the episode, Chrissie overhears a conversation between his father and Mrs Muller, a poverty-stricken Colored woman. She pleads with Father to reinstate her brother’s classification as White. Previously he requested to be reclassified as Colored when he was in love with a Colored girl and was arrested because it was and still is illegal for a White person to sleep with a girl of another race. Her brother now can get a job as a postman but it is a post reserved for a White man. Chrissie is shocked, but is also unable to see how it can possibly relate to him and Ruthie.
The first signs that Abraham is not well start to appear.
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FEW LINE SYNOPSES OF EPISODES TWO TO SIX
Episode Two: Chrissie and Ruthie’s love affair develops and they meet in secret. Chrissie works in the race classifications office during school holidays.
Abraham’s health deteriorates and Chrissie often has to carry him on his back. Abraham experiences his first kiss, falls in love and has his only experience of intercourse.
Ruthie teaches Chrissie to ride a bicycle to get ready for his motorbike. He buys it and takes Ruthie for a ride before his father confiscates it. Ruthie’s brother spots them together on the bike and tells their mother. Ruthie is banished to her grandmother in Cape Town and disappears out of Chrissie’s life. Chrissie starts Dog Box Flowers, a very successful business, Annie helps him with the admin for a share in the business.
Episode Three: Chrisie’s parents find out about Ruthie, his father knows in his heart it’s true but can’t admit it even to himself. Chrissie works in the race classification office again. He discovers more of the horrors the Portuguese refugees suffered and that only the ones that will be accepted as part of the White community can stay, the dark-skinned ones are sent to Portugal or Brazil.
Chrissie finds that babies born out of wedlock are brought in for classification before their births can be registered and any with any sign of colored blood are send to a special home where they will remain until the age of sixteen when they can decide which race they want to be. White is not one of the choices.
In a tear-jerking incident Abraham drowns after he slips out of Chrissie’s grip in a flooded stream. Chrissie blames himself and afterwards walks with a stoop because he always feels Abraham’s weight on his back.
Episode Four: Ruthie comes back into Chrissie’s life and their love affair continues in secret. They become more relaxed and go to a concert together where Chrissie kisses her for the first time. The Petersen family finds out that they still see each other and Ma Petersen insists that Chrissie visits Ruthie at home on Saturdays where she can arrange a chaperone. Chrissie meets Ruthie’s all of Ruthies extended family, including those who pass for White.
Episodes Five: They make love for the first time, are caught and arrested. All hell breaks loose. Chrissie escapes from custody and runs away from home and as an independent minor who earns enough to support himself, he divorces his parents. He flees to Johannesburg where he continues to grow Dog Box Flowers.
Episode Six: Adult Chris, returns to see his dying mother. He visits the place where Abraham died, goes for a swim where he and Ruthie were spotted. Drifting on his back in the gentle movement of the water he finally forgives himself for letting Abraham die and walks back to his car without the stoop, Abraham is not on his back any longer.
