The story takes place in the village of Wupperthal, and the tea fields nearby. The ongoing construction of a corporate golf estate means tension amongst the inhabitants hangs over the velvet skies and gentle farm life. The estate promises to bring much-needed employment to the area, but at a cost: it would be built over our protagonist Carissa’s grandfather’s rooibos farm. Delmar and Jacobs attempt a character portrait of Carissa, a familiar figure of a young adult faced with the decision of whether to leave home.

This is a movie about farm life, and not so much about the titular character.The story is infused with slow cinema devices. There’s a tendency to drift into unrelated vignettes, showing a worker at the tea fields, a church-goer in the village, or one of the many goats. The shot choices rely on the audience’s patience as you breathe in the vastness of each landscape. There’s a lot of lingering. The camera wanders around, often unconcerned with characters, instead capturing this location’s intricacies. The scenes spent with unnamed community members in their routines are pleasant.

The choice to cast community members over professional actors is appreciated and brings a warmth to Wupperthal. Gretchen Ramsden does a commendable job portraying Carissa. It is Ramsden’s performance that brings autonomy and depth to the character. Wilhelmina Hesselman shines in a genuine and energetic performance as Carissa’s grandma. The directors are admirably unpretentious in the way they present each bystander and figure in Carissa’s radius. The fundamentals are here and the collaboration with the Wupperthal community is palpable.

The storytelling is far less robust than the cinematography and the performances. For a coming-of-age film, the commentary on “leaving home” and dynamics between rural life versus urban life are underdeveloped. Carissa only gets a chance to reconnect with her grandfather & the tea fields she might be signing away around halfway through. By then, we mostly get tepid fish-out-of-water comedic moments that don’t always work. The directors are unable to justify Carissa as the protagonist. The interactions with the grandfather don’t carry the weight they deserve. Some editing choices are awkward and redundant, compromising the slow cinema approach, and disengaging viewers. Ultimately, “Carissa” feels too shy to follow through on the intriguing ideas presented early on.

This Afrikaans-language drama offers an empathetic look at an often overlooked part of South Africa, with some notable narrative flaws.

Carissa premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 81st Venice International Film Festival.