Do NOT read the Netflix or imdb summary of Black Butterflies. It will leave you more confused than if you just watch the movie. What you need to know: it is a true story based on a famous poet who lived when South Africa was under an apartheid government. A lot gets lost in translation because I lost my sense of poetry in law school, and the difference in time period, culture and country are obstacles too high for me to surmount and claim that I understand Black Butterflies. It is similar to Romulus, My Father because I wasn’t sure if one of the characters was reacting normally to insanely harsh conditions, is just a jerk or has an undiagnosed mental condition. In the end, I choose all of the above. Because of this unhealthy mix with a dash of literal authoritarian withholding of love, approval and acceptance father-no tropes here, he actually invented the trope complete with a government title as minister of censorship to prove it, it creates a person who is not bound by convention. Good if you are reacting to an insane and inhumane political climate or wanting to be an artist unafraid of boundaries. Not good if you would like to function as a human being who does not constantly hurt yourself and those you claim to love. If Ingrid Jonker could not find peace, it was a combination of external and internal storms, but would she have existed without apartheid? Yes, but then she probably would not have been an artist unless she decided to react as a feminist fighting against expectations as a daughter, wife and mother. Still she would have been insufferable as a man with those same traits: claiming to love one person, but without advance notice to that significant other, openly making sexual advances to others, constantly demanding attention, not holding down a job yet expecting to be financially and emotionally supported unconditionally during drunken angry tirades. It is the art that redeems her humanity, but I mourn the countless unknown numbers who probably suffer from undiagnosed mental disabilities that do not get such redemption. Game of Throne fans who imagine an alternate world where Melisandre and Davos Seaworth get it on should check out Black Butterflies to see how well that would have worked out.