KARIEN POLLEY
The magic of radio and podcasts is that each listener imagines a unique picture as the story unfolds.
Out of the Shadow:
The Peace Trees of Hiroshima
How do humans rebuild their lives after a nuclear attack? How do they deal with their ongoing losses?
Out of the Shadow: The Peace Trees of Hiroshima tells the story of how in the midst of great loss, there are opportunities to live, love, and heal.
Aki and her father, Kazuki, survived the devastation of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Their life’s work is tending to the Hibakujumoku Ginkgo trees, which miraculously survived the bomb. Today, the city is rebuilt, and the ancient trees have seeded many times, creating a forest of hope.
But what of the trauma the survivors have suffered and the sense of loss they carry with them every day?
When Aki first meets the American botanist, David Bloch, it is to share her knowledge about the medicinal qualities of the Gingko, a cure against forgetting. Little does she know the feelings their encounter will unearth. David asks her forgiveness as he tries to make sense of the past, but Aki is not ready to let go of her pain.
Van die Vlees
(Of the Flesh)
It is the year 1706 at the Cape of Good Hope or The Cape of Storms as it is known. A young slave (Rosiena of Madagascar) is forced into a web of murderous deceit by Frans, the husband of her owner. Frans is a cunning man who will stop at nothing to get his hands on his wife, Maria’s wealth. Rosiena gets embroiled in a dangerous plot, where the church and the law is firmly on the side of colonists.
Littekens (Scars)
Nobody moves through life without some scarring, some scars are physical some psychological. LITTEKENS is a political drama that takes place in the late nineteen seventies in South Africa, in the university town of Stellenbosch. Under the policy of Apartheid there is racial divide, the country is in flames, military draft for all white men over 18 is compulsory, the Border War with Angola rages, the Soweto school children protests on the streets, activists are arrested, many disappear. The situation on campus is tense. A group of student friends with different political convictions have to decide where their loyalty lie, with far reaching consequences.
Sarah
It is a cold, windy evening in the Eastern Cape. Sarah Baartman and “History” are conversing around a fire in the open veld. “History” wants to rewrite Sarah’s life story , he wants to give a more objective view of her tragic fate. He wants her side of the story. Sarah is not who she was 200 years ago, when she died exploited and abandoned in Paris. She now sees her life in context. Can her tragic life give us insight into the past and how prejudice leads to racial stereotyping? Sarah voices her contempt for patriarchy and her concern for the increasing violence against women and children.