Katinka Heyns

Katinka Heyns (born September 20, 1947) is a South African actress, director and filmmaker in the South African film industry. She is known for including feminist perspectives in her films, as well as for commenting on South African politics and culture. Her work includes the film Paljas which was selected as the South African entry, but eventually not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards. Biography Katinka Heyns was born on September 20, 1947. She attended the University of Pretoria in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in drama. Heyns was married to writer Chris Barnard, with whom she has a son, Simon Barnard. Career She began her career as an actor playing a part in Jans Rautenbach's Katrina (1969). She went on to be cast in several of Rautenbach's films, including Janie Totsiens (1970), Pappa Lap (1971), and Eendag op 'n Reendag (1975). She also received a lot of attention for her role in Manie van Rensburg's television comedy series Willem. Due to the apartheid policy in South Africa at the time, there were severe censorship laws in place, however Heyns was still able to make documentaries about various literary individuals. Heyns founded the production company Sonneblom Films in 1974. It was through this company she was able to create feature films unique to her particular style. All the scripts for her feature films were written by her husband Chris Barnard. Her feature films include: Fiela se Kind (1987), Die Storie van Klara Viljee (1991), Paljas (1997), and Die Wonderwerker (2012).