DVD REVIEW
Faith Like PotatoesWhen a farmer gives his life to Christ, he finds not only transformation but a new direction, becoming the "South African Billy Graham."Review by Annie Young Frisbie |
posted 4/07/2009
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Here's the thing about potatoes. You plant them, and cover them with dirt, then pray like mad for rain. With most crops, you can see what you're going to eat—the fruit of your labors, so to speak. But potatoes incubate in the ground, silent and mostly unseen, while you hope for harvest. Only a farmer-turned-evangelist would know how apt a metaphor potatoes are for a life of faith in Christ Jesus, making Faith Like Potatoes the perfect title for a biopic based on the true story of Angus Buchan.
Angus (Frank Rautenbach), a Scotsman born in Africa, leaves his farm in Zambia due to poor yield and escalating violence. His fiery temper ensures that he burns bridges, thanks to his penchant for escalating petty disputes into full-fledged fistfights. With three children and pregnant wife Jill (Jeanne Wilhelm), Angus buys a plot of land in South Africa and builds a life out of nothing.
Frank Rautenbach as Angus Buchan
"God will give us a farm," says Jill, as she sets up house in the one-room trailer she names Shalom. Angus just snorts. He doesn't believe in anything but the toil of his own hands, as he wrests crops from the earth and slathers mud on the walls of the shack his large family will soon call home. Angus was born to work, but that work is driving him to an early grave.
As Angus's farm grows, so does his workload—and so does his anger. He flies off the handle at a moment's notice. Jill suggests anxiety medication, but deep down Angus knows that his rage is a spiritual, not biochemical, problem. When Jill manages to drag Angus kicking and screaming to church, he receives the shock of his life when the sermon leads him to give himself and his family to Christ.
Angus's pastor challenges him to tell three people what he's done, and in doing so Angus discovers in himself a boldness and passion for evangelism. He wants other men like himself—hardworking, exhausted men—to know that work alone will not save them. When a chance fire threatens to spread to a nearby farm, Angus challenges his Zulu farmhand Simeon Bhengu (Hamilton Dlamini) to pray with him for rain. Simeon scoffs, because it's not yet the rainy season—until the clouds gather, and the raindrops fall, and the fire is utterly extinguished. Out of the ashes Angus hatches a plan to launch a revival for farmers, black and white, to take place in South Africa's biggest stadium.
Hamilton Dlamini as Simeon Bhengu
Shot on crisp, vibrant HD, Faith Like Potatoes has an intensity and immediacy that keeps it from seeming too preachy. It's a good thing that it's based on a true story (as found in the book of the same name), because Angus's experiences would be hard to swallow in a fiction film. Angus tells his wife that he's been called to be foolish for Christ, and every seemingly ridiculous choice he makes yields a miracle pointing back to the glory of God.
Not that Angus's life post-conversion is without trials and tragedies. It's here that the movie falters some. Angus's story would've been better served by a few more scenes where he wrestles with his faith in light of a heartbreakingly unanswered prayer. The film alludes to this struggle, but a lot more could've been said. It is clear from the film that Angus experienced a crisis of faith, but in holding firm led his family into great spiritual growth. Unfortunately, these scenes play out off screen for the most part. Often, it's the wrestling, more than the miracles, that offers the most powerful testimony in a believer's life, so it's too bad that the movie misses this opportunity.
Faith Like Potatoes would've also been enhanced by more information on the culture and politics of present-day South Africa. When Angus pitches his rally to the stadium head, he repeatedly mentions "the current violence," which presumably is racial in nature, but, again, none of this appears onscreen. Not that the film needs to be Hotel Rwanda, but it should at least offer more than just a half a line of dialogue on the subject. Without specifics, the film's message of racial reconciliation lacks teeth—it's just Angus in a kilt talking about how he's as African as is Simeon.
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Gib M
Tina C., as indicated by some of the farm talk in the film, potatoes are expensive to grow due to high fertilizer and spray costs, and they require moist soil (are not drought resistant). The soil was dry, and the El Nino had everyone expecting a long drought. Angus risked the farm by planting a high input, moisture loving crop during a drought. If he planted a cheaper crop, it would have been much less risky. He had faith that God would provide enough rain to make the crop.
Tina C.
I don't know anything about farming. Can someone enlighten me why it was such a leap of faith for him to plant potatoes during a drought. His friends made it seem like it was better not to plant anything, then planting the potatoes.
Melinda Gilmore
Finally, a review that doesn't bash Christian films. I never read CT's reviews anymore because the reviewers so often call evil good and good evil.... Isaiah 5:20-21 "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight."