Set in 18th-century South Africa, the film dramatizes the true story of Claas Blank (Rouxnet Brown) and Rijkhaart Jacobsz (Neil Sandilands), two prisoners on Robben Island.

In an interview packaged with the DVD release, John Greyson notes the real Blank and Jacobsz began their relationship when they were both teenagers—Blank having been imprisoned on Robben Island at age 16—and were actually known to be a couple for twenty years before they were charged with sodomy and executed, when they were both nearly 40.

Intentional anachronisms, such as transistor radios, electric typewriters and jeeps, are used in the film to illustrate Greyson's larger theme that homophobia and racism of the type that led to Blank's and Jacobsz' executions remain very much present in the world.

[3] Dennis Harvey of Variety stated that the "film has enough erotic and exotic content to win arthouse viewers" but it "lacks lush aesthetics and impassioned complexity, ending up a tad remote".

[5] Dave Kehr of The New York Times stated "a heavy, pretentious, and derivative film" and it had been "gussied it up with fantasy sequences and formal games that distract from the dramatic core".