Layla Fourie

Layla is a single mother living with her son in Johannesburg, getting by with casual work. After training as a polygraph operator she manages to secure a job with a company specialising in lie detectors and security. On her way to her new workplace she is involved in an accident which will fundamentally change her life. Layla becomes entangled in a web of lies and deceit. The truth could lead to the loss of her son.

For her third feature film Pia Marais - who has lived in Berlin for many years - returned to South Africa where she grew up to make this classic thriller. She uses the genre to take a look at a country which still bears the scars of apartheid. In this way, everyday life in South Africa enhances the tension in the screenplay which she co-wrote with Horst Markgraf.

Almost casually, "Layla Fourie" develops into a political thriller which takes the audience into the paranoia, fear and mistrust of a society that is still profoundly affected by racial conflict.

Source: 63. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)