‘The Girl from St Agnes’ exorcises demons for local filmmaker

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

A teenage girl at an elite girls’ boarding school is found dead. It’s ruled a tragic accident, but there’s something more sinister at play. Launched on Showmax earlier this year, the series has created a buzz, and will reach international TV screens by early 2020.

Gavshon, the managing director and shareholder of the award-winning film and television production house Quizzical Pictures, said, “Showmax was looking for an English drama, and the idea had been kicking around in my head for a long time – a murder mystery set in a girls’ private school. I was trying to exorcise some demons of my own about going to a girls’ private school, and about being a Jewish girl at that school.

“Originally the character who died was Jewish, but ultimately, she ended up not being Jewish. I wrote the original idea, and then handed it over to the show’s writers. The emotional tone of the story tried to capture something – first my memories, and then the memories of many of the writers and directors on the series.”

Having attended St Mary’s in Pretoria as a day girl, Gavshon often had to deal with the disconnect between her home and school life. “While in the end the show wasn’t my story at all – nothing as extreme happened to me or anyone I knew at school – making it allowed me to dwell for a while on my memories,” she said. “I thought of that feeling of being trapped in an environment that’s so rule bound. As a Jewish girl in a school like that, I did feel dislocated. I grew up in a kosher home and I spent Shabbat at shul, and then I went to that school. So, I had two sides to my life.”

Yet, The Girl from St Agnes raises issues far beyond any individual experience. “We wanted to make a series which captured something that mattered,” said Gavshon. “The abuse of young girls and the idea of generational abuse, abuse that comes down over generations. We also explored the tone of female friendships; they feel resonant whichever school you went to.”

Nimrod Geva, a producer on the series, said the show evoked memories for him as well. “I liked the world immediately,” he said. “I could see the misty rolling hills in a really prestigious, uptight private school with dark stuff happening in the background that no-one wants to talk or know about. The idea of appearance versus reality appealed to me. I went to King David, which was a kind of intense private school. It was very different in a lot of ways, but the religiosity and links to community and tradition were things that jumped to mind.”

Geva likes the fact that the story reflects social issues and matters of real concern. “We dealt a lot with gender, with power, privilege, and somewhat with race,” he said. “It was an effective way to reflect on where we are in 2019 as a country, but within this microcosm of a really elite private school.”

Gavshon said that while some aspects are unique to South Africa, the show has an international feel. “Our international distributor, Red Arrow, came in from the beginning, so we always knew it was going to be distributed internationally,” she said.

The show should be flighted internationally, in the United Kingdom and United States, by the beginning of 2020. “It’s the first South African series that’s getting big international distribution like this,” said Geva.

Gavshon said the show was a cautionary tale about taking care of each other. “The world for young girls is not an easy place, so it comes down to the advice I would give to my own daughter, which is look out for each other. It also reflects the idea that secrets breed secrets. And it offers lessons for parents about talking to their children.”

Said Geva, “It looks at the pressure kids are under today, the incredible stress and expectation placed on them. It’s also about the importance of friendship, and the way girls’ relationships are affected by guys. We look at how teenagers are split into two selves, the self they present to adults versus the self they are with their friends and online. Straddling these selves is becoming trickier.”

Also somewhat tricky is the entry archway of the fictional St Agnes school, which some have said is reminiscent of Auschwitz. “I didn’t even think of that,” said Gavshon. “That’s completely subconscious, I think. People take images and they read their own experiences into it.” Geva said the likeness did occur to him once he saw it. “I can see why people have that response. I don’t think it was intentional. They wanted to keep the name on the arch, and once you’re working with wrought iron and grey and mist, it creates a mood that might suggest that.”

“Initially I thought there was no relationship between being Jewish and my work,” Gavshon said, “but then I was asked to speak on the topic at Limmud one year. I realised that I had created many Jewish characters, particularly Jewish female characters, almost unconsciously. I spoke to a Jewish director about how, broadly speaking, Jews in South Africa occupy such an interesting position as simultaneously the oppressor and the oppressed. It’s an ambiguous position.”

Asked what it takes to succeed in the industry, Gavshon stressed the importance of resilience. “Never take no for an answer. I’m quite dogged, resilient, and optimistic. When I’ve had disappointments – and of course there have been many – I’ve just shaken them off and started again.”

Geva emphasised the importance of networking. Currently in Los Angeles trying to get some projects off the ground, he said being Jewish often helped. “The Jewish network is always useful. I don’t want to make it sound like a mafia here,” he laughs, “but there some nice connections.”