They are not. If the film had ended the way it began, with Boesman trudging ahead of Lena, their lives would not seem uplifted. Next time you want to kill me, do it. When you hit, hit those lights out. Twice, then, Fugard asks for darkness into which they tramp at the close.
Berry adjusts the dialogue and changes the time of day to morning.
Thus Boesman and Lena take on a touch of a newly resolved couple walking into the dawn of a new life, which was not Fugard's intent. On the whole, however, the play is wellflexed for the screen. And the film is crowned with a paradox. Its cinematic being is enhanced by its original theater conception. Two people arrive at a place, rest, confront their existence, then continue.