Afrikaans

A family’s life in the Karoo (a semi-desert area in South Africa) is changed when a travelling circus leaves behind a clown.Read More »

Directed by Daryne Joshua, “Noem Ma Skollie (Call Me Thief)” is South Africa’s official entry for the foreign language film at the Oscars.

Based on the life of the film’s scriptwriter, John W. Fredericks, the film tells the story of a young man living in a world of poverty and violence in 1960s Cape Town, before being imprisoned for a petty crime.Read More »

The third feature from distinctively voiced writer-director Jenna Bass — who also co-wrote 2018’s Kenyan Cannes headline-grabber “Rafiki” — “Flatland” represents something of a feminist milestone for a national cinema where genre film in particular has hitherto been a boys’ game. Wittier and more kinetic than the predominantly solemn South African fare that has popped through on the international festival circuit in recent years, Bass’s film ought to travel widely on the strength of its crowd-pleasing story switch-ups and strikingly integrated racial and gender politics — virtues undiminished by an admittedly drawn-out last act that feels a little drunk on its own momentum. Adventurous distributors with a taste for world-meets-Hollywood cinema should investigate; international casting directors, meanwhile, should note the film’s sensational trio of female leads.Read More »

This is a coming of age adventure follows teenage best friends Lefa and Papi. To escape their poverty-stricken situation, they try to earn money through growing and selling marijuana. The harsh life in the townships is clear between the jokes and bizarre events.Read More »

Zulu South Africa anthropology Dramatic feature with strong ethnographic element, (silent film) first look at Zulu life in South Africa

directed by: Attilio Gatti
1928 60 minutes

This is a heavily fictionalized account of Zulu life in 1927. Made by an Italian team that included the famous anthropologist Lidio Cipriani, it weaves genuine enthnographical elements into a fantasy of love, witchcraft, and betrayal.Read More »

Quote:
Nicholas has long known he is different, that there is something shameful and unacceptable in him that must stay hidden, denied even. But South Africa’s minority government are embroiled in conflict at the Angolian border and all white young men over 16 must serve two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime and its culture of toxic racist machismo. The ‘black danger’ is the real and present threat; what is wrong with Nicholas and others like him can be rooted out, treated and cured like a cancer. But just when fear pushes Nicholas to accept unspeakable horrors in the hopes of staying invisible, a tender relationship with another recruit becomes as dangerous for them both as any enemy fire.Read More »