Film Archive

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Banned

“Banned” uncovers the compelling story of “Joe Bullet,” a groundbreaking 1971 South African action thriller. As the first film to feature an all-black African cast, it faced immediate censorship upon its 1973 release. This documentary delves into the film’s tumultuous history, featuring interviews with surviving cast members Abigail Kubeka and Sol Rachilo, producer Tony Van […]

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Black People Don’t Get Depressed

Black People Don’t Get Depressed is born out of the frustrating and frightening experiences of neglect and violation experienced by the director and through the stories of ordinary and well-known people, who share their intimate journeys with managing their own mental health issues. The journey follows an array of characters, including a musician, poet, artist, […]

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Death Of A Whistleblower

When ballsy investigative journalist Luyanda Masinda narrowly survives the assassination of her whistleblower lover, she joins forces with his inside man to expose the use of corruption and state capture by a powerful private security force intent on promoting chemical warfare in Africa and the Middle East.

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Diary of an Elephant Orphan

The Jabulani herd is unique in that it is mostly comprised of elephants that were also once orphans. This makes the herd more accepting of other orphans, offering a unique solution for orphaned baby elephants who seldom survive outside of an elephant family structure.

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Die Kwiksilwers

Quicksilver, the vintage Ford Granada in Die Kwiksilwers, is not just any old car. For Elsabe Marais (Lida Botha), it is like a time capsule holding the memories of her late husband, with whom she regularly undertook adventures on the road. The headstrong Elsabe departs on a trip through the Karoo with three elderly friends […]

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Don’t be late for my funeral

A film-maker, travels to a small rural town to visit her retired nanny and domestic worker, Margaret Bogopa Matlala. Set against South Africa’s backdrop of change, the film explores the two woman’s friendship and life-long connection that flourished despite the barriers placed between their families. Margaret was forced to leave her own family behind, to […]

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Hier.Na

The Burgess family is a typical modern, culturally blended South African family in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, on top of a hill, under a cross. Eric is secular, but his wife, Juleigha, who prefers to be called Julie, is a non-practicing Muslim. They have two children. Dean is a professional online gamer, and […]

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I Did Not Ask for This!

I Did Not Ask for This! looks at Tsakani Motshweni’s tough and extremely courageous journey towards healing after being sexually abused in juvenile prison, and his determination to fight to end the scourge of sexual violence in places of detention.

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Illusion of Distance

“Illusion of Distance” explores the lasting impact of the Apartheid era on individuals like Boeta Allie, an 80-year-old man labeled as “coloured” under the Apartheid regime. Separated from his childhood friend Isaac Mbenyane due to racial segregation, Boeta Allie shares a poignant story of friendship disrupted by forced removals that tore apart communities in District […]

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Legacy: The De-Colonized History of South Africa

Three decades after the official end of Apartheid, South Africa continues to bear the deep wounds of its past. This documentary presents a nuanced and intimate portrait of the nation’s enduring legacy of systemic racism, exploring critical issues ranging from economic inequality to the psychological scars of oppression. Featuring voices from both sides of Apartheid’s […]

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Love, Your Neighbour

In this wry love letter to South African suburbia, a local filmmaker attempts to connect with his upmarket neighbours through their intercom systems, starting conversations about guard dogs, racial profiling and home security.

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Mamelodi – A Timeline of Heroes

In this short film documentary, titled “Mamelodi – A Timeline of Heroes,” we delve into the importance of storytelling and the impact it has on understanding our roots and preserving our history. The documentary draws inspiration from Aubrey Mogase, an esteemed author and founder of an organization dedicated to researching and documenting the history of […]

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Masiphumelele

Masiphumelele means “We will succeed” in Xhosa. In the early 1980’s a group of 400-500 black people started an informal settlement in the bushes close to where Masiphumelele is today. Today more than 26,000 people live in Masiphumelele. Zintle Magazi is a young woman and activist born and bred in Masiphumelele. Her quest to explore […]

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Middle of Somewhere

After a family tragedy, Albert attempts to guide his son, Allie into manhood at the request of his overbearing and traditional father, Eugene. Throughout the film Albert and Allie embark on a series of hunting trips, all while Eugene’s influence looms over them. In the process, Allie starts to harden into someone Albert no longer […]

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Milisuthando

Set in past, present, and future South Africa — an invitation into a poetic, memory-driven exploration of love, intimacy, race, and belonging by the filmmaker, who grew up during apartheid but didn’t know it was happening until it was over.

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Month End

A slacker and her buddy have to come up with a thousand rands that they owe a loan shark to retrieve her grandmother’s new TV set before she returns from church when he confiscates and threatens to sell it off to recover his money.

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My Mercury

This is the story of Yves Chesselet, who as a young conservationist and wild spirit, forsakes the pleasures and comforts of modern life to live on an island with only seabirds and seals for company. Mercury Island, off the coast of Namibia, becomes the centre of Yves’ world when he pledges to wrest 15,000 seals […]

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Of Bread and Water

In a South African fishing community, Witbrood (White Bread) and his wife, Monica, face endless hardships. Nevertheless, they share what they have – and take in a child, who they raise as their own.

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Old Righteous Blues

South Africa’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. A young man is forced to confront his limitations, face the ghosts of the past in order to unite a fractured community and realise his dream of leading his town’s Christmas Choir Band to former glory.

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Over my dead body

Kids talking about death, Heaven and Hell during a funeral.

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Shame

Shame is based on a poem by Education without Borders’ (EwB) co-founder, Cecil Hershler, this short film was proudly produced by EwB. Through the medium of dance, the film tells the story of a young girl in a South African township.

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Shap Shap

After a challenging childhood with his grandmother in a remote village, 13-year-old Mmusi sets off to the township in search of his father. Instead, he’s taken in by a strict Jehovah’s Witness, whose unyielding beliefs leave him feeling out of place. Struggling to fit in, Mmusi ends up homeless, rejected by society. Determined to reunite […]

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Sierra’s Gold

Sierra, an eccentric young black visual artist in Johannesburg discovers she’s pregnant with her boyfriend, who also happens to be her manager. Tiro, the boyfriend, presents Sierra with a hard choice: abort the pregnancy or lose him forever. Sierra chooses Tiro over the growing child within her. She consumes a strange concoction, given to her […]

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Snake

When a luminous stranger arrives on the farm, Stella’s father stays sober and her mother begins to laugh again. But the man with the silver cross has not come to save them. As jerry slithers his way into their hearts, his own dark wounds begin to show. Stella must shut up and watch him strangle […]

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Sonti

A 19-year-old village boy saves the life of a woman who has been kidnapped. In doing so he endangers the lives of his family. His courage is not appreciated by his family and when the killers stop at nothing to find him, he must face a difficult decision and choose between saving his family or […]

Event

Special Event – Is there an Elephant in the Room

Is there an Elephant in the Room In an online conversation, comedians, Schalk Bezuidenhout and Joel Creasy provide insights into the world of comedy. You’ll get to peek behind the curtain and glean fascinating information about these worldclass artists in a first-of-its-kind event for SAFF. Watch this honest dialogue as part of your FULL FESTIVAL […]

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Spud

It’s South Africa 1990. Two major events are about to happen: The release of Nelson Mandela and, more importantly, it’s Spud Milton’s first year at an elite boys only private boarding school.–

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Take a Seat

After receiving her vaccine, a young woman unexpectedly reunites with her ex-boyfriend in the crowded observation room, leading to an awkward situation that forces them to confront unresolved issues from their past in the most inconvenient and amusing way possible.

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Temperature Rising

Taking place between two major climate conferences – COP26 Glasgow and COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh, Temperature Rising uncovers the barriers to climate action and calls loudly for movement building from below, at a time where the very survival of large numbers of people depends on what activists can get political leaders to do.

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The Friendship Bench

In 2006, Dr. Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist in Zimbabwe, was ordered by the government to deal with the severe mental health crisis afflicting the nation. However, there was literally a handful of psychiatrists in the entire country, which meant searching for a solution beyond conventional medicine. That forced him to consider grandmothers (Gogos) as his […]

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The Last Ranger

When young Litha is introduced to the magic of a game reserve by the last remaining ranger, they are ambushed by poachers. In the ensuing battle to save the rhinos, Litha discovers a terrible secret.

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The Showerhead

The Showerhead, directed by Craig Tanner, examines the work of cartoonist Zapiro from his period as an anti-apartheid struggle-artist to his enduring role as a progressive commentator and freedom-of-expression champion who has stood his ground against powerful politician Jacob Zuma. SAFF is delighted that Zapiro, aka Jonathan Shapiro, will be in Australia to support the […]

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The Wait

After arriving at a Cape Town police station to report a crime, Mzu finds an elderly man been overlooked while waiting at the back of the queue. The station is busy and the old man is confused with no one to assist him. Mzu then takes it upon himself to see that the old man […]

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Wild Coast Warriors

The story is constructed as an almighty existential clash of cultures. The amaMpondo protagonists, conserving nature, their way of life and their very existence, battle the antagonists, Shell, Impact Africa (British oil), and the South African government, their profit-driven fossil fuel exploration that could potentially destroy marine life and indigenous culture, leading to a climactic […]

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1994 The Bloody Miracle

2014 marked the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. It seems hard, though, to believe the ‘Mandela miracle’ nearly didn’t happen. What history forgets is that during the last year of Apartheid, South Africa was on the brink of catastrophe, with certain groups intent on derailing the first free elections. Now, […]

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A Performance on Femininity

By definition femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Last year I was invited to a residency which facilitated an opportunity to make a film about Nara city life and it’s people from a lens of an outsider. Amongst the many amazing people I […]

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Awake

A married couple, whose relationship is eroding, is forced to confront those fractures when they realise that history may be repeating itself. But not in a way they could ever have anticipated.

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Bergie

The term “bergie” is a South Africanism that refers to people that are homeless, since they usually sought refuge on the slopes of Table Mountain (in Afrikaans, ‘Tafelberg’). When a law enforcement officer has to remove people that are homeless to make way for a 10km fun-run, he has to navigate the complex intersection of […]

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Coach

Coach is a short advocacy and impact based documentary challenging notions of Xenophobia in South Africa. The protagonist, Coach Merlin, demonstrates how foreign nationals contribute to nation building through grass-roots sport development.

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Down, A Comrades Story

A film celebrating 100 years of the world’s greatest ultra-marathon, unpacked during the course of a day, the running of the 2022 Comrades Marathon. This is the intriguing motif that underscores ‘Down, A Comrades Story’. Using the 2022 event to bind a century of epic races, a sequence of remarkable stories unfolds and reaffirms the […]

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Father’s Day

Father’s Day is a short film about Alakhe a 12-year-old boy who is raised by a single mother. Being the class nerd, Alakhe is selected to give a speech for a Father’s Day school event. He decides to go against his mother’s word and sets out to find the father he’s never met which opens […]

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George Bizos ICON

Watch online from ONLINE 18 & 19 MAY A young Greek refugee from Nazi Greece ends up in South Africa and becomes an internationally renowned human rights lawyer. Through his remarkable legal work he defends prominent South African revolutionaries during the brutal and racist system of apartheid, fighting for justice until the end.

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Hans Steek die Rubicon Oor

The headstrong 90-year-old Hans is forced into a retirement home by his estranged daughter Karla (living abroad). Once there, he faces the draconian management of Matron van Dussen, a retired jail warden, who restricts and disempowers the residents. He tries to escape, but his efforts are futile against the matron’s repressive rule. Locked and restricted […]

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I am Sheriff

I am Sheriff follows a young man as he travels the mountain kingdom of Lesotho showing his film in remote villages, schools and communities. Sheriff was born with a girl’s body, but, as the grandmother in his film recounts, he refused to wear dresses and always wanted to play with the boys. “My name is […]

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I am this water

This documentary follows a group of Khoi and San activists who are fighting to save a sacred site, INGAMIRODI !KHAES (The place where the stars gathers) also known as the Two Rivers Urban Park area in Cape Town, South Africa. This site holds great spiritual and cultural significance for the indigenous group as it is […]

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Life, Above All

In the dusty small town of Elandsdoorn, a South African township not far from Johannesburg, life is simple and serene. A prevailing sense of deep pride tightly bonds together the entire community – but beware to those who step out of line … 12-year-old Chanda is a hardworking promising young student with a bright future, […]

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Mapantsula

Screening for one night only in select cinemas in Australia and New Zealand. Please note: Mapantsula is NOT available to watch online. During demonstrations in apartheid-era South Africa, police arrest not only activists but also Panic, a “mapantsula” or petty gangster. While a cop tries to get him to make incriminating statements, we learn in […]

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Mbokodo

“Wathinta abafazi, Wathin’imbokodo” (you strike a woman, you strike a rock) is a phrase commonly used to describe the strength of a woman. It is used to describe the epitome of strength found in women. Sizani, an eight-year-old girl, uses ukuqoqisa – a storytelling form where rocks are used as characters in a story – […]

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Reflections in a broken mirror

Reflections in a broken mirror is a powerful documentary that explores how theatre makers and playwrights have attempted to reshape Afrikaner culture in alignment with the transition to a new South Africa. The film focuses on key theatre productions that challenged the dominant Afrikaner identity, using provocative imagery to reimagine the role and identity of […]

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Riel

South Africa, Present Day. Frieda, a shy woman of Khoekhoe and German descent has traveled with her parents to a small rural town to visit her aging grandmother for her seventieth birthday. It is there that she is asked to participate in the rieldans and while she is at first hesitant, she joins in and […]

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Seconds

SECONDS follows the story of Seconds Khumalo, an ageing boxer from the East Rand of Johannesburg. The Van Tonder family, whose property he lives on, and for whom he boxes — begin to grow suspicious as years of unanswered questions and traumas start to surface. Seconds has always trained under Pa Van Tonder, working for […]

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Soccer Season: Playmaker

Lunga is excited to join the Soweto Kickers Soccer Club. But he is disappointed when he is only selected for the D team – he knows his father will see this as a failure, especially as there are girls on the team and the coach is a woman. When bullies from other teams try to […]

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The 16th Man

‘The 16th Man’ tells the emotional story of the end of apartheid in South Africa, the start of Nelson Mandela’s new government with its goal of racial unity, and how the South African rugby team’s victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup brought a healing process to the country. The film highlights how Mandela used […]

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The Gooseberry Grandmother’s Daughter

In October 2020, Malungelo ’s world came crashing down. Her mother, a tough but big-hearted woman with a bellowing singing voice was murdered. She was shot 6 times as she enjoyed afternoon tea at her kitchen table. Malungelo’s son, 13-year-old Buyile witnessed the murder. As is customary, when a visitor arrives at a Zulu homestead, […]

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The Last Seed

The Last Seed focuses on broad themes relating to the state of food and agriculture in Africa in the twenty-first century. Placing the struggle for the control of seeds at the centre, it explains the processes that have led to this moment in human history and what it would take to interact with the planet […]

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The Radical

THE RADICAL is an intimate portrait of the world’s first openly gay imam. Muhsin Hendricks was a fashion designer in South Africa, who struggled to reconcile his sexuality with his faith. He studied in Pakistan to become an imam—a religious leader—so that he could understand Islam more deeply. After deciding that he had to be […]

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The Umbrella Men

When musician Jerome Adams flies into Cape Town for his estranged father’s funeral, he finds his dad has bequeathed him his beloved Goema Club, as well as the care of The Umbrella Men minstrel troupe. Unfortunately, the Club comes with a huge overdraft, due in two weeks for repayment to the bank on penalty of […]

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True Patriot

Between 1961 and 1989, in Apartheid South Africa,132 political prisoners were executed by hanging at Pretoria Central Gallows. Many were young – Solomon Mahlangu – executed in 1979, was 22 years old when hanged. All save one were black. John Harris – [no relation to the producer / director of this documentary] – hanged at […]

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Volle Bors (BARE)

Eva, a young poet in her 20’s, sits in a genetic counsellor’s office feeling overwhelmed by the possibility that she may have an extremely high risk of breast cancer due to her family history. She tests positive and is confronted with the idea of having a mastectomy. Removing her breasts while they are still healthy, […]

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1960

Lindi, a retired singer (inspired by Miriam Makeba) looks back at her life when the remains of a murdered apartheid-era policeman, Kobus, turn up 60 years after the massacre in Sharpeville. But how much will Lindi reveal about what happened to Kobus? 1960, which opened the 2022 Durban International Film Festival and also won the […]

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African Moot

Every year, over a hundred of the most talented law students from across the African continent gather in a different capital city to compete at the prestigious African Human Rights Moot Competition, the largest mock court competition in Africa. At the competition, these young aspirant lawyers act as both prosecution and defence in a cutting-edge […]

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Call Me Miles

Call Me Miles tells the moving story of a young man who feels trapped in a woman’s body. This searingly honest and exposing documentary charts the challenging journey of Miles’ growing up, and his attempts to live a meaningful life and find acceptance and happiness. Miles speaks openly about his desperate struggles with puberty and […]

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Cleanse

This is a poignant short film about Maria, a domestic servant in the Free State who is trapped in an endless cycle of cooking, cleaning, and ironing, just like her mother. She is employed by an endlessly demanding boss. Cleanses’ exploration of the power relationship has relevance beyond South Africa; so historical and entrenched is […]

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Desmond’s Not Here Anymore

This sparsely worded film is a reflection on the ravages of dementia and sexual abuse in families. It shows a distressed Abigail packing up the house of her beloved mother, Selma, who is suffering from advanced dementia. The gentle daughter intends moving her mother to her own home, where she can care for her better, […]

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Girl, Taken

With more twists and turns than a fictional thriller, this true story keeps us on the edge of our seats as its focus shifts from the theft of three-day-old Zephany from a Cape Town hospital to the chance discovery of a schoolgirl many years later. The emotions experienced by the girl’s two families are explored with […]

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Leemtes En Leegheid

Ingrid Jonker’s heartbreaking poem “Jy het my gesterf…”, is the pivot around which this short film revolves. Leemtes en Leegheid is a moving short, that tells the story of Magdaleen, a lonely widow trapped in the waves of loss. Magdaleen creates an imaginary version of her deceased husband to process the end of a lifetime’s […]

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Margarine

Margarine tells the story of 13-year-old Robert, who leaves an abusive family to live on the streets, where he becomes a violent gangster. He falls in love with Margarine, an innocent schoolgirl, allowing him to feel tenderness and hope for the first time in his troubled life. “Meeting this girl is the rebirth of my […]

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Mier “The Ant”

The bleached Kalahari desert is the evocative setting for this short film, an Official Selection for the 2022 New York African Film Festival. Mier “The Ant” subtly explores the implications of diamond mining in the ancestral lands of the San (Bushmen). Boetie, a frustrated young man from the village where the San have been resettled, crosses […]

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Mission: Joy

Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos teams up with co-director Peggy Callahan on Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times, a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a […]

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Music is My Life

Music is my Life is a compelling documentary about the incomparable Joseph Shabalala, founder of the wildly popular a-cappella singing and dance troupe, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The music, which has won multiple international awards, draws heavily on Zulu harmonies (isicathamiya and mbube) resonant of Shabalala’s traditional roots. The film charts Shabalala’s rise from humble farm origins […]

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Mutant

Mutant is a documentary film that paints an intimate portrait of one of South Africa’s most outspoken and controversial artists and the turbulent world he lives in. A world of extremes, the film captures the harsh realities of living in one of the most dangerous corners of the earth but also mindful and deliberate in […]

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Prayers For Sweet Waters

Prayers for Sweet Waters takes us into the lives of three transgender sex workers, Wesley, Gulam and Flavirina. It opens with a heartfelt prayer from Gulam “God we are in pain, why don’t you do something?” Despite facing violence, prejudice and the challenges of the Covid -19 pandemic, Gulam embraces life and is a strong […]

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SECTION 16

Women journalists in South Africa who expose wrongdoing by those in power are often forced to endure deeply personal, frightening attacks on social media, as the four leading reporters interviewed for this documentary disclose. Investigative reporters for publications that include The Daily Maverick and Die Beeld discuss the impact on them of targeted social media negativity, […]

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The Fragile King

Michael, a 15-year-old schoolboy, is sent to live with his grandfather after his mother dies. They don’t know each other and the emotional gulf between the traumatised boy and the crusty old man is immense. Slowly a relationship builds during a road trip to Alexander Bay, near Oranjemund, only to be severed by Gerald, the grandfather. […]

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The Honeymoon

When Katia (Kitty), a talented fashion designer’s fiancé casually dumps her on the eve of their wedding, a new world of adventure and emotional insight opens for her. She and her two unlikely friends, Lu (married with two children) and the extravagant, larger-than-life Noks, agree to go ahead with the planned honeymoon to the exotic […]

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The Little Match Girl

Shot in black and white, with haunting music as the sole audio, this short fairytale (an adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen story) takes us into the world of a homeless young girl who wanders the streets of Cape Town. Actress Farren Lategan (Best Actress at the Paris Women Festival) brings tears to our eyes […]

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The Reclaimers

Johannesburg’s informal waste pickers have been fighting a battle to be recognised as formal labourers for a few years now. Luyanda Hlatshwayo, is one of an estimated 6,000 informal waste-pickers in Johannesburg who live off other people’s garbage in what the World Bank calls the most unequal country on earth. The 35-year-old university dropout often […]

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The Water Rats

The freezing, moody waters of London’s Hampstead ponds bring together a diverse and fascinating group of Londoners, who find companionship and joy together during the Covid 19 lockdown. What is it about this group that makes it so special? Young, old, men, women, many Jewish, a Palestinian and a recovering addict discover connections with one […]

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The White Line

Framed by scenes of Namibia’s formal independence as a newly formed African country in 1990, Desiree Kahikopo’s historical romance takes us back to 1963, soon after the 1959 uprising in Old Location — an area segregated for black residents of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia (then a territory of South Africa). It is in this […]

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This Side of Fabulous

On duty, Patricia-Anne Swartz-Goliath shows 15 police trainees how to leopard crawl with gun in hand past the window of a building as she gives tactical training. Off duty, this robust Cape Town police captain and hostage negotiator dons a sequined Egyptian bra and skirt, shimmies her hips and teaches belly dancing. Footage of the […]

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Valley of a Thousand Hills

This simmering same-sex romance is set in a traditional, patriarchal and rural community in beautiful Kwa-Zulu Natal. Nosipho and Thenjiwe are robust and modern women, whose passionate secret relationship will inevitably lead to conflict in such a traditional tribal and conservative context. While Nosipho is forced to marry a man, Thenjiwe is banished to stay with […]

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War Dogs and I

War Dogs and I is a heart-warming documentary about Kobus Oliver, the nomad cricketer and Ukraine Cricket CEO who did everything in his power to protect his four dogs during the war between Russia and Ukraine. Putting his own life in danger for that of his beloved dog children named Tiekie, Ollie, Jessie & Kaya. […]

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Where is Mr. Adams?

The opening night of an original amateur theatre production brings an ill-prepared cast and crew to their knees when one of the show’s major cast members, Mr. Adams, mysteriously vanishes. Michael, the director of this show, pushes on without him. The night teeters on total collapse as all moving parts of the production threaten to […]

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You’re My Favourite Place

You’re My Favourite Place is a coming-of-age film by the award-winning filmmaker Jahmil X.T Qubeka follows four troubled township teenagers, who set off in a stolen taxi to Hole in the Wall, on South Africa’s Wild Coast, where Nelisa Vena hopes to commune with the spirit of her dead sister. En route they pick up […]

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#WeAreDyingHere

This compelling film, which some may find challenging and disquieting, portrays three women reciting an indictment of the unending violence perpetrated against females in South Africa. They portray themselves as soldiers fighting a war of survival. Is this violence aided by social media as the hashtag in the title may imply? #We Are Dying Here […]

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Atlantis

Ra’ida, a taxi driver, is the hero of this fast-paced gangster film. The story unfolds on the gritty streets of Atlantis, a township near Cape Town. Ra’ida’s brother, Marid, has disappeared, her family is torn apart, and she is determined to find out what happened. Above all, she wants justice. A snitch, a snoop, drugs, guns, and […]

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Dance Me to the End of Time

The moving and personal Dance Me to the End of Time is an ode to the extraordinary Nancy Diuguid, whose life was one of grace, both in the living and the leaving of it. Made by Nancy’s life partner and award-winning filmmaker, Melanie Chait, the documentary is not an extended meditation on death, but rather […]

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Dare to Dream: Zip Zap Circus

Dare to Dream, Zip Zap Circus takes us into the whirling, twirling lives of its young performers, who make our hearts soar as they balance fearlessly on the trapeze and juggle with joy. Dare to Dream entertains big time, but it’s as much about hope, about what young people can become if given the chance, about […]

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Dying For Gold

Dying for Gold looks at who is behind South Africa’s yellow wealth: Men whose lungs and lives are destroyed by digging for gold; women whose husbands return to poverty-stricken rural areas disabled by silicosis and tuberculosis; sons who follow in their fathers’ footsteps because there is no other work. Co-Directors Richard Pakleppa and Catherine Meyburgh […]

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Gaia

Pierre-Henri Wicomb’s spine-tingling score underpins Jorrie van der Walt’s magnificent cinematography in the chilling ecological horror that is Gaia. From the seemingly innocuous opening sequences to the twist-in-the-tail ending, Gaia will have you on the edge of your seat and loving the ride. And, despite sometimes being awestruck by what you see on screen, as in all […]

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Hotele Lerallaneng

Stylish Hotele Lerallaneng, situated high in Johannesburg’s Mellville’s “koppies” or hills, sets the scene for filmmaker Charlie Vundla’s engaging, authentic and moody drama. Two South African artists find themselves adrift during lockdown – Jabu, a young writer recently out of rehab who hopes to reunite with his young son, and Roxanne, a filmmaker who is […]

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Moffie

Moffie, the story of a young soldier who forms an erotic connection with another conscript during basic military training on the Angolan border in 1981, is both confronting and tender. Brutal scenes of boot camp, with its physical and psychological abuse, contrast with an elegantly understated portrayal of a teenager’s emerging feelings for a fellow […]

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Moya

Born from these tumultuous times is MOYA, an acrobatic art film rooted in South African culture seen through the eyes of our youth. We follow the protagonist who experiences living, breathing, laughing, and dancing through the technicolour natural landscapes of Cape Town, discovering himself and his environment through the magic of circus. Staying true to […]

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Mrs Right Guy

Mrs. Right Guy is a delightful, light-hearted comedy of manners set in Gauteng, South Africa. The film satirises the language, affectations and behaviour of those in advertising and the actors easily convince us that their characters are living their lives in the dream world that advertising promotes. A young woman is being courted by two […]

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Nobody’s Died Laughing

A theatrical action documentary film, celebrating the life and work of South African activist and artist Pieter-Dirk Uys. The film takes the audience on a journey from around South Africa to Berlin, London, Los Angeles and Geneva to highlight the importance of standing up for what you believe in with the power of laughter. Witness […]

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Phefumla

Beautifully filmed in the waters of Kwazulu-Natal’s Sodwana Bay, Phefumla shows how a marine scientist who grew up in Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats, overcomes his fear of drowning. “Breathe” (“phefumla” in Zulu), Loyiso Dunga tells himself, as he ventures into the ocean, knowing he is not a good swimmer. Scared, but enchanted by the diversity of […]

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Pluck

Although focusing on the creative output of one company, Nando’s, Pluck avoids the trap of self-indulgence. This rollicking, warts-and-all exploration looks at how the sometimes outrageous Nando’s ads have held up a mirror to South African society. From roaring successes to cringe-worthy failures, Director Lloyd Ross gives us a deftly presented case study of the creative […]

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Sifa

War and ongoing violence force eight-year-old Sifa and her family to flee their home in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The documentary recounts the family’s harrowing journey on foot to South Africa, where they are taken in as refugees. Their struggle to survive in a country known for its xenophobia is movingly recounted. Sifa is helped […]

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Sons of the Sea

Mexican-American director John Gutierrez takes us into the shadowy world of abalone smuggling in Cape Town for this taut thriller, which explores the psychological and material effects of displacement and the age-old conflict between humans and their environment. Inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Sons of the Sea is the familiar tale of what happens when […]

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The Art of Fallism

The thought-provoking Art of Fallism interweaves archival footage of the student protests that swept South Africa in 2016 with the lived experience of four activists whose stories put a human face on the scenes of student rage and violence. Beginning with the movement to decolonise education – #RhodesMustFall – The Art of Fallism shows students rallying […]

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The Untamed Voice

For decades Afrikaans music – seen as exclusively the purview of White South Africans – was used as a tool in the arsenal of Apartheid. The Untamed Voice: A Rediscovery of Afrikaans Music gives a voice to all those musicians who didn’t fit the mould and whose contributions were consequently ignored or belittled. Riku Lätti (of “Die Wasgoedlyn”) […]

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Township Yogi

Through the stories of six residents who become yoga instructors, Township Yogi documents the surprising flourishing of yoga in the townships of Kwa Zulu-Natal. Life for all six has been a struggle for basic survival, given joblessness, government incompetence, crime and the ravages of chronic diseases. Despair is close to the surface. But, despite some church […]

Short

Umama

Veteran actress Connie Chiume brilliantly portrays Sibongile, a South African domestic worker torn between having to care for her employer’s child, while trying to stay connected with her own teenage son. When her son disappears, Sibongile has no option but to continue working, with heartbreaking results. Written and directed by Talia Smith, this intimate short drama […]

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We Are Zama Zama

In South Africa’s abandoned mines, men scrabble for gold, using hand hammers and bicycle head-lamps, often remaining underground for days, often without food. Their survival is dependent on their hands – and luck. They are gamblers, or Zama Zama, who hope to scrounge a living from exhausted veins despite crumbling mineshafts and criminal overlords because at home […]

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What Did You Dream?

What did you dream? is a magical film about magical thinking in an unmagical world. The film depicts three children using their night dreams to reveal lucky numbers for the Chinese lottery – an event which generates great local excitement. Part of the charm of this vignette stems from the authenticity and appeal of the […]

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Zero to Zero

A gripping insider’s view of the Covid pandemic at the start of 2020, filmed by a South African health care worker, which takes you into the heart of the hospital. The mood is buoyed by the engaging personality of the lead physician – a dedicated female doctor from Malawi — as well as the sense […]

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A New Country

A New Country takes a sobering look at recent history, from the early days of liberation to an increasingly fractured contemporary society still battling the legacies of apartheid, colonialism, and continuing racial and economic inequality, 26 years after apartheid ended. Director Sifiso Khanyile assembles an impressive chorus of activists, leaders, educationalists, and artists who comment […]

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Barakat

An aging matriarch aims to bring together her fractured, dysfunctional family over Eid-al-Fitr to break the news about her new romance.

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Blindside

Blindside covers the 1974 boycott-breaking tour of South Africa by the British rugby team the Lions. In the mid-1970’s the sports boycotts of South Africa were ramping up overseas. Yet in the country itself, sport was seen as sacrosanct, something removed from the political process. Many relatively enlightened white South Africans rejected the cruelty and […]

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District Six Rising from the Dust

Weaam Williams’ deeply personal portrayal explores an issue central to today’s South Africa – the challenge faced by a forcibly displaced people in reclaiming ancestral lands and rebuilding a community. More than 70,000 residents of District Six, a once vibrant, multicultural suburb of Cape Town, lost their homes and businesses to the apartheid government’s bulldozers. […]

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For Love and Broken Bones

Motheo, a lonely musician and debt collector with a ruthless boss, finds his world turned upside down when he falls in love with his latest assignment, feisty single mum and enterprising wedding planner Refilwe. For Love and Broken Bones is an engaging and unexpectedly tender gangster flick come love story with Philip Marlowe tones that is […]

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Good Hope

This is a well-researched, informative documentary that delivers what it promises. Good Hope tracks the history of the transition from apartheid to the present by exploring the views and experiences of diverse participants, many from the post-apartheid “Born Free” generation. They share their hopes, dreams and frustrations candidly and with accuracy, a strong sense of common […]

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Influence

Influence is a revealing, David vs. Goliath inside track to the immoral, dangerous and weaponised influence that PR firm Bell Pottinger had in South Africa and the world. With the nefarious Lord Tim Bell as a key interviewee, the film tracks in chilling detail his callous manipulations of geo-politics for financial gain, showing how these facilitated […]

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Jozi Gold

Grandmother Mariette Liefferink, an impassioned environmental crusader who has lobbied government and mine owners for over a decade to remediate the devastating pollution caused by gold mining in Johannesburg and surrounds, shows us that one person can make a difference. Dogged research, courage, determination and a desire to find meaning underlie Liefferink’s relentless campaign to […]

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Life is Wonderful

When Denis Goldberg, then 33, was sentenced in 1964 to life imprisonment along with Nelson Mandela and others for seeking to forcibly overthrow South Africa’s apartheid government, he shouted “Life is Wonderful.” Goldberg, the only White convicted in the historic Rivonia trial, retained his optimistic outlook. Interviewed towards the end of his life, he expressed […]

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Mama Africa

Miriam Makeba’s talent and vibrant personality shine through award-winning director Mika Kaurismaki’s inspirational tribute. Packed with five decades of rare archival footage, the film is enriched by interviews with some of the key people who knew her as fellow musicians or activists. Exiled from South Africa for over thirty years, Makeba became a pariah in […]

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Mother to Mother

The murder in a Cape Town township of 26-year-old Amy Biehl, an American human rights activist and Fulbright scholar, rocked South Africa in 1993. Mother to Mother is a sensitively made, short documentary based on the gut-wrenching novel by Dr. Sindiwe Magona, writing in the voice of the mother of one of Amy’s murderers to […]

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Riding with Sugar

This zany, action-packed film features accomplished acting, inventive cinematography, and a plot twist guaranteed to surprise. Joshua’s dream of making it big in off-road cycle racing crashes when he has an accident. He’s taken in by Mambo, who runs an orphanage in Cape Town. Mambo, Joshua, and the troop of high-spirited boys are all African […]

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SanDance!

Writer and producer Richard Wicksteed has spent decades filming the San, Africa’s oldest tribe numbering around 130,000 people scattered across southern Africa. SanDance follows dancers from rehearsals in remote Kalahari villages to uplifting performances at Botswana’s annual Kuru Dance Festival. Dance, particularly healing dance, is central to the San culture. It’s a way of connecting […]

Short

Sides of a Horn

This timely short film embraces a hybrid of dramatic and documentary styles to look at rhino poaching through two fictional antagonists, a ranger and a poacher, juxtaposing their points of view of a poaching incident that puts them both at risk. The choice to not show graphic footage of carnage gives Sides of a Horn […]

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Tess

Raw, confronting emotionally charged – these are the words that spring to mind in relation to Tess. What may not be immediately apparent is that this story of a physically, emotionally and psychologically damaged sex worker is also ultimately about self-affirmation and empowerment. The central character, Tess, will live with you long after the final […]

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The Letter Reader

This gentle, short film features appealing acting by Siyabonga, a twelve-year-old boy sent to his grandmother’s village while his parents sort out their marriage. Siyabonga becomes the village letter reader, connecting people with their loved ones around the country. He discovers the power of words, and cannot bring himself to cause pain to a beautiful […]

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Toorbos

An engrossing, coming-of-age story, Toorbos centres around 18-year-old Karoliena, who lives in the impoverished white community in the Knysna forest. Forced into marrying Johannes, a shopkeeper, Karoliena struggles to adjust to her new life in town. The film portrays a courageous woman in a conservative Afrikaans society in the 1930’s, who finds her voice and […]

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Back of the Moon

28 July 1958. Badman, an intellectual and the leader of the most powerful gang in Sophiatown, lives life on his own terms in this crazy, cosmopolitan, half demolished ghetto on the edge of Johannesburg. The gorgeous Eve Msomi, a torch-singer on the brink of an international career, is giving her last concert in the local […]

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Beyond Moving

When a young Siphe November leaves his small township in South Africa to follow his dreams at Canada’s National Ballet School, he begins a remarkable journey that reveals deeply personal pulses of family, prejudice, expectation, loss, and resilience that beat beneath the surface of a beautiful and demanding art form. As he soars on stages […]

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Billy Monk – Shot in the Dark

Billy Monk. A 1960s Cape Town legend whose black and white photographs of dockside nightlife reveal an underground South Africa, untouched by the division of apartheid. His own tragic story is equally as colourful. DIRECTOR STATEMENT ‘Billy Monk – Shot in the Dark’ is a celebration of a little-known slice of South Africa’s history. Through […]

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Buddha in Africa

Enock Alu, a Malawian teenager growing up in a Chinese Buddhist orphanage, feels torn between his African roots and Chinese upbringing. Once the star performer with dreams of becoming a martial arts hero like Jet Li, Enock, in his final year of school, has to make some tough decisions about his future. Will he return […]

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Fiela Se Kind

Southern Africa, 1865. A mixed-race woman living in the arid Karoo takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own. Nine years later, the boy is removed and forced to live in the Knysna Forest with a family of woodcutters who claim that he is theirs. Separated by law and geography, Fiela […]

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Flatland

A contemporary Western, a journey of self-discovery for three different but equally trapped women. A portrait of femininity against a hostile land, questioning what it means to be a woman today in South Africa and the world at large. World Premiere at the Berlin International film Festival (Panorama) – 2019

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How to Steal a Country

How to Steal a Country shows how investigative journalists, with the help of whistle blowers, doggedly uncovered the systemic looting of South Africa’s most important state-owned enterprises, to the benefit of the Gupta brothers and then-President Zuma. It’s a suspenseful story of corruption, involving the top echelons of political power and several well-known multinational corporations.

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Johnny Clegg – The White Zulu

“Johnny Clegg, the white Zulu“, Amine Mestari’s documentary, tells the story of the exceptional adventure of a committed musician, crazy for dance, who has made the world loves his vision of a South African culture. A culture that allows everyone, black and white, to express themselves and make it possible to get along. Apartheid wanted […]

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Knuckle City

Opening in 1994, Knuckle City shifts between the childhood and adult lives of the legendary boxing champion turned gangster Art Nyakama. Cut to 2019 and his two sons have grown up to follow closely in the footsteps of their father. Dudu Nyakama has become a womanizing professional boxer and Duke Nyakama is now a career […]

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The Last Victims

A former member of South Africa’s infamous death squad (C1 – Counter Insergency) must atone for his past when he helps one survivor, search for the bodies of a missing anti-apartheid cell. Unaware that as they hunt for answers, they too are being hunted.

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The Space: Theatre of Survival

South Africa, 1972: The oppression of the apartheid led government brutalised the black and non-white population groups, removing anyone deemed an antagonist to the regime. From incarceration and vicious beatings to the blatant murder of the innocent by the police, the unrest in South Africa is palpable. On returning from a trip to London, Brian […]

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Beyond the River

Duma is a talented young man who feels trapped by his surroundings and finds himself on the wrong side of the law. After a near miss with the cops, he finds an escape in the world of canoeing, an old passion of his. Steve is a nine-time Dusi gold medalist whose marriage is on the […]

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Ellen: Die storie van Ellen Pakkies

Told across two timelines, this movie shares the story of Ellen’s stormy relationship with her twenty-year old drug-addict son, Abie Pakkies. In 2007, his death caused a stir worldwide when it was revealed that his mother was the one who murdered him. When advocate Adrian Samuels takes on the case, he is determined to prove […]

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Glory Game: Joost van der Westhuizen Story

Former South African Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen is no stranger to the spotlight. From fame on the rugby field to a scandalous fall from grace, his life has been public property. Now he tackles a disease which has no regard for his past triumphs, and again he lays himself bare to the world […]

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High Fantasy

A group of young friends on a camping trip, deep in the South African countryside wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies. Their individual cultural heritage and experience of these strange happenings couldn’t be more different; and stranded in the wilderness, they will have to navigate a personal-political labyrinth if their friendship and […]

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Kanarie

When Johan Niemand gets called up for military service at the age of 18 in 1985 South Africa, he auditions and is accepted to the South African Defence Force Choir called the ‘Canaries’. Against a landscape where law and religion oppress individuality, Johan and the Canaries have to survive military training and go on a […]

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Liyana

A Swazi girl embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue her young twin brothers. This animated African tale is born in the imaginations of five orphaned children in Swaziland who collaborate to tell a story of perseverance drawn from their darkest memories and brightest dreams. Their fictional character’s journey is interwoven with poetic and observational […]

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Nommer 37

Entrapped in his apartment, Randal Hendricks, a recent paraplegic, is given a gift of binoculars by his devoted girlfriend, Pam. But he is in financial debt to Emmie, a sadistic loan shark, and when he witnesses a powerful gangster, named Lawyer, commit murder while observing his neighbours through his binoculars, he initiates a dangerous blackmail […]

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Whispering Truth to Power

This film charts the final year in office of South Africa’s Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, as she attempts to bring justice to ordinary people. After successfully challenging President Zuma for illegal use of state funds, she now has to face the biggest challenge of her career: investigating – in the face of protests, death threats […]