Hope keeps one going, but it can also hold captive. In the South African docu-fiction hybrid Variations on a Theme, nearly eighty-year-old Hettie is still waiting for compensation for her father's military service, despite being lied to time and again. Who can blame her for continuing to dream? Directors Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, recognised as rising talents at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, paint a serene portrait, rooted in the landscape and local community. Recurring imagery gently recounts its own, unfinished story, full of bittersweet poetry. As the South African-raised crooner Al Bowlly sings during the closing credits: “Dreaming the lonely night through.”