The Price of Sugar directed by Jean van de Veide/ Netherlands, Germany, South Africa/ 2013/120 minutes; Dutch/ English Subtitles/ Drama/ U.S. premiere. To be shown three times at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival: at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 3, and 4 p.m., Thursday Feb. 11 at the Reading Cinemas 14, 4665 Clairemont Drive, San Diego; and at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, at Edwards San Marcos Stadium 18, 1180 W. San Marcos Blvd., San Marcos.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO –This film is set in 18th Century Dutch Guiana, which today is known as Suriname. The shameful truth in this fictional film is that some of the slave owning sugar planters in that Dutch colony were Jews, who justified their ownership and mistreatment of fellow human beings with such verses in the Torah as Genesis 9:25—“Cursed is Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”
We cringe when we see cruel people wearing kippot, but just as we have asked other peoples (especially Germans and other Europeans) to admit their painful pasts, so too must we.
However, the movie is not principally about black-white relations. Rather chattel slavery provides the background for a white society in which the principal character, Sarith (Gaite Jansen) grows up as a self-centered, pampered plantation princess, who becomes embittered when her marital ambitions are frustrated.
Sarith’s father raped a slave woman, producing a slave girl named Mini-Mini (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing), who became the playmate and personal slave to Sarith, her half-sister. Mini-Mini accompanies Sarith everywhere and is able to narrate Sarith’s story. After their father dies, their mother marries a Jewish plantation owner who is a widower. Sarith grows up with a step-sister, Elza, with whom she becomes rivals.
Initially Sarith rejects a suitor because she has her eye on another man. But her quarry marries a girl from a richer family, so Sarith turns her attention back to her suitor. But he meanwhile has fallen in love with Elza, so Sarith plots to get him back. Through the eyes of Mini-Mini we watch as the predatory Sarith debases herself. At one point, her behavior becomes so contrary to the norms of Surinam society that the slaves cannot hide their scorn for her. As one might expect of a character who feels entitled to do whatever she desires, Sarith reacts viciously, setting into motion the movie’s climax.
Directed by Jean van de Veide, the movie is based on the novel The Cost of Sugar by Suriname’s premier novelist Cynthia McLeod, daughter of Suriname’s first president Johan Ferrier. Because of the sexual content including numerous bare-breasted scenes (of both black and white women) festival organizers have flagged the movie as having “adult content.”
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)