Circles in a Forest (1989)

Saul Barnard grew up in a family of woodcutters who are scared of the elephants in the forest, but there's one elephant that never seems to threaten Saul. Tired of being exploited by wood buyers, Saul takes a stand and his father chases him away. He goes to work in wood-buyer MacDonald's wood yard, where he gets to know MacDonald's daughter Kate and falls in love with her. After a few years (10 in the film, 2 in the book) he leaves MacDonald (and Kate) and joins the first prospectors in the forest, searching for gold. Millwood becomes a small town with hotels and bars and houses. Kate appears again. One night, an elephant makes trouble and MacDonald tells Saul's brother Jozef to find the elephant and kill it. When Saul hears about this, he races off to find the elephant first. The film is based on the novel by Dalene Matthee, which was translated from Afrikaans to more than 10 other languages, although the film differs substantially from the book. If you've read the book, don't expect the same story in the film. For instance, much of the original feeling of powerlessness Saul experiences is missing. Matthee was a notable South African writer who died on 20 February 2005.