Discoveries from South Africa World Cinema

After a family tragedy, a man attempts to guide his son into manhood through a series of hunting trips at the request of his overbearing and traditional father.

Set in contemporary South Africa, EVENTIDE follows an established photographer as she prepares herself for a life of blindness.

Magdaleen, a lonely widow in her 70s, creates an imaginary version of her deceased husband to numb the sadness and pain. After being so overwhelmed with her memories for so long, she desperately tries to re-enter the outside world and see the sea again that she has been longing for for months now.

Rand film's love drama Môre-Môre is based on the popular radio serial of Jan Scholtz. The story is set in a small rural town and go over Lana, a matric girl who falls in love with her ​​teacher and with the petty and ruthless actions of the people in the town. One of the school's boys jealousy about the relationship reaches a climax when, during a sports event try the teacher with a spear throwing died. Lana is played by Sybel Coetzee, Hans Strydom, the teacher and Johannes Slabbert played the role of the schoolboy. Other well-known players Ana Neethling-Pohl, Jan Bruyns, David van der Walt, Tobie Cronje and Iris Coertze. Môre-Môre was produced in 1973. Elmo de Witt was the director and Jan Scholtz wrote the screenplay.

A massive sing-a-long party with live music at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria.

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 Leila, a medical student, celebrates her Muslim identity, which she recently rediscovered – something that irritates her mother greatly. When Julie suddenly dies of a heart attack, Leila undertakes to arrange a Muslim funeral for her with the help of Julie’s mother. This upsets the whole family. Everyone must now navigate years of conflicts and undercurrents within one tumultuous day so that Julie can be buried before sunset, as Muslim custom requires.

Pieter discovered at a very young age that “the world he found himself in was not a comfortable one”. At around the age of four he decided that this life was not for him so he began creating another world for himself – in pictures. This documentary follows the life path of Pieter van der Westhuizen. It displays his great talent and his extraordinary adaption to a life that was not without challenges - his fascination with Israel, his failed marriages and the influence that his life tragedies had on creating the world that he chose to escape to through his art.

The original 1975 feature film about the mischievous young Trompie and the misadventures he and his gang of friends embark upon, based on the books by Topsy Smith.

When the son of a well-off Zulu polygamist squares off with his Indian varsity lecturer over who can be a youth or an adult better than the other, life gives them an opportunity to swap lives and live out their differences through a comedy of errors amidst 2 cultural ceremonies that they are both central to.

In the volatile moments after a car crash, before the authorities arrive, a hot-headed yet desperate tow truck driver fiercely protects his tow. But the situation quickly spirals out of his control.

A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek their young 8 year old "master".

POU is a South African gothic horror following the journey of a young woman into the dark recesses of the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past.

Two incompetent detectives, punished by their captain, are put on a wild goose chase.

A widower, Hans (90), is forced into a repressive old-age-home. Once there, he comes face to face with the draconian management, who forces him to become a rebel and activist, a 90-year-old-man who has nothing to lose by revolting. An anti-ageism revolution about growing old on your own terms.

Soccer captain Mondli is doing his best. But with his father away and his mother not coping at home, it's not easy. When the demands at home and of his team clash, Mondli realizes what true leadership really is.

A newly married couple rent out a room to a series of quirky lodgers to earn extra money

Two women clean a farm murder scene.

This short film explores identity and sexuality within the Afrikaans minority culture of post-Apartheid South Africa through a fable about two brothers who descend into matricide and madness on a remote ostrich farm.

South African Film

Tired of their usual yearly meet-up, four college friends decide on a boys’ getaway that quickly spirals into international chaos, forcing them to rely on old bonds, questionable skills, and pure luck just to make it out alive.

The wastelands and crowded streets of an African country are traversed by a woman bearing a wooden cross on her back. She is followed by sellers, beggars and passersby, outraged voices, pity and curious glances. Parallel to her, among a herd of sheep, a lamb toddles its way from the far away mountains into the heart of the city, only to find itself dangling, skinned and headless, on a butcher’s shoulder. In the meantime, under the scorching sun, in a roofless house, a woman is persistently knitting a garment, unwinding a thread coiled over her son’s face.

When five ex-band-mates come together for their annual reunion, a dead body stirs up suspicion and violence among the friends.

A Dutch Reformed Church minister from Swartruggens falls in love with a nurse. When it becomes known that the nurse is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, the minister's church council is not at all pleased with the relationship. To complicate matters further, a married doctor also falls in love with the girl.

Joseph Mabena lives with his wife, Doreen, their children and spouses, and their grandchildren in an overcrowded house in Hangberg. When he is injured at his workplace, Mabena receives a large compensation payment for the loss of one eye. His family is suddenly overly concerned about him and confesses their love in the hope of getting some of that money as well. Mabena sees through their false affection and decides not to share a cent of his "hard earned" money. At the local bar, he meets a new love, Zelda, and he brings her home to the horror of his wife and children. When he announces that he wants to marry her, his wife and children decide to poison him.

A 19-year-old village boy saves the life of a kidnaped woman and endangers the lives of his family. When the killers stop at nothing to find him, he must choose between saving his family or a life of a stranger.

Gerhard Steenberg is a murderer on parole. He travels to Duiwelsvallei, a place where even the devil must tread lightly. He becomes entangled in the peculiar lives of the Duiwelsvallei's people. Initially, things go well, but then murder, jealousy, blood feuds, and betrayal rear their heads. Gerhard becomes ensnared in a love triangle. Not even his girlfriend's suicide can drive the unwanted stranger out of the valley. Only blood, his own, that of his ex-wife, and his best friend Bergsma's, will allow him to leave Duiwelsvallei.

A pregnant prostitute, A taxi driver and an iPhone come together on an ordinary Johannesburg afternoon to decide the value of a life. Can two people who do not know how to love, create a home?

Fanus, tired of life and alone, is incompetent to take his own life. The nosy caretaker, who is always looking for her rent money but is actually looking for a friend for her wheelchair bound son, complicates the situation as well.

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.

During a never-ending winter, an old man descends down a mountain into the valley of oblivion. There he stumbles upon two sisters who are seeking salvation within the ruin.

The story of three friends (Chicken, Drikus and Chris) who are determined to make Drikus's last wish true - to make a zombie movie. In the process of making the film, Hoender begins to process the loss of his father's death. At the same time, he creates new friends, works confidently and realises that he has a lot to offer to others. Drikus's joy of life and determination bring together the surrounding lifeless communities and revitalise their lives.

Planning their 25th wedding anniversary, the Van der Merwes realise that their marriage certificate is lost. When they go to the relevant government department, they discover that there is no record of their marriage. Because there is no legal proof of their union, the couple has in a sense been living in sin. Magriet will have none of it and moves into a motel--either she must be made an honest woman once and for all, or 25 years of marriage go out of the window. In the meantime, Grandpa arrives with his pet goat in tow and only his grandson to appreciate him.

Regret and redemption take center stage as Sondra, struggling actor and professional mess, faces the consequences of a lifetime of her own bad decisions

A tumultuous day in the life of a mixed bag of students at a poor government school on the Cape Flats called John Shelby High.

The intimate tale of a goddess who tries to win back the affection of her former lover who has moved on in life without her.

This short doccie accompanies pianist Nina Schumann as she prepares to perform Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. It’s a piece that she’s performed many times before, but this time it’s different.

A hustling hop-hop artist and an up-and-coming amapiano dancer put aside their differences to join forces to defeat genre-defining stereotypes and support each through life struggles.

Sara Blecher returns with a markedly different film: a groundbreaking multi-cultural African gangster thriller.

In 1976, Adriana van Aardt and her husband Johan, are having marital problems. Adriana drives to their holiday farm near the dusty rural town of Duiwelslaagte. En route she has to stop and pick up her husband's cousin Frans, whom she has never met; Johan will join them later. Sparks fly between Adriana and Frans. A journalist arrives and warns Adriana that Frans is not who he appears to be.

A couple decide to move to a small and remote farming town in Western Cape, South Africa. The people in the town are strange and keep away from newcomers but the couple is happy. Until the woman starts seeing some strange things in the town, fields and even their own home.

Housewife Megan's idyllic life is thrown into turmoil, when it emerges that her husband, Lloyd, faces a heavy prison sentence for tax evasion. Megan, caught completely unawares is sent into a tailspin as she, not only loses her husband, her home and her comfortable suburban life, but also finds herself implicated in the tax fraud and facing jail time. Down on her luck and with nothing to her name Megan has to rediscover who she really is. With the help of her son and her best friend, Lindiwe, she finds solace and hope in her life-long love and affinity for cooking. She learns that the path back home begins with realizing that she is enough and all she needs is her family, food and love. Life's 3 courses made easy.

In South Africa's gold-mining region is the subterranean dimension of the Zama Zama, illegal miners that make a living by mining the ore in both operational and abandoned mine shafts. "Zama Zama" is the personal narrative of two brothers: Malcolm, a successful businessman in the mining industry; and his long-lost brother Joseph, one of those who work in the underground tunnels--playing off against the tension of the mines' punitive actions against these miners.

This is the story of the highly controversial 2018 Test series between Australia and South Africa involving the infamous ball-tampering scandal, Sandpapergate.

While struggling to adapt to a new environment, Siyabonga, a 12-year-old boy discovers the impact of reading letters to people. One day a letter with bad news lands in his hands.

A disillusioned Johannesburg street thug rescues an orphaned child with uncontrollable supernatural powers. On the run, he must help the sickly boy master his gift before a superstitious family member finds them.

A young nurse and a young man meet on a beach. A romance develops and pretty soon they fall in love. Immediately the girls mother is against the relationship and even goes so far as to meet with the boys father to arrange to have the boy sent away. He does this but the young couple still find a way to meet.

Two brothers go from job to job, determined to make their fortune.

Johannesburg, 1968. Khuthala hates his father's laundry and doesn't want to take over the family business. But the apartheid government is cracking down on black business ownership. Khuthala is torn between pursuing his own dreams of becoming a musician and fighting against the injustice that threatens the business.

Brooding pimp Sugar Man escorts his three ladies of the night (Sugars) to various clients on Christmas Eve in Johannesburg, South Africa. He takes out a hit on a supposed romantic rival, while the ladies deal with some of the pitfalls of the job. All are pursued by their own demons and regrets at this festive time of year.

South African military film. Currently does not have a VHS or DVD release

You probably think that you are an ordinary South African citizen who doesn’t snoop around in other people’s business, but when the ‘Candid Kings’ are close by, nobody is safe. Ek Joke Net is a prank-film of epic proportions, where everybody is a target.

Following the dealings of Mauritanian fixers ferrying migrants by sea, this film shows the human cost of irregular migration in West Africa. Interrogating the role of fixers as facilitators of the voyage across the sea as well as the casualties that occur, this asks if they are very different from 16th century slave catchers.

Hannes Lombard is a medical doctor who was struck off the roll for substance abuse. He takes refuge on a farm in northern Natal, where his farming efforts are unsuccessful. Buks, his godson is sent to live with him. He’s quite happy to swop city life for a carefree life on the farm with new playmates in a new school. He and Sproetie, the neighbours’ little girl soon become great friends and their laid-back existence becomes even more idyllic when Hannes gives them each a horse. But the serpent sneaks into paradise. Lelik, Buks’s dog startles Sproetie’s horse, who throws her. The fall leaves Sproetie paralysed, and Buks is consumed by selfreproach. But it is old Willem, the farmhand, and his simple wisdom who makes life bearable again for everyone.

A down on her luck lawyer, dangerously jealous of her old college friend's successful career and enviable relationship, attempts to step into her friend's professional and personal shoes- no matter the cost.

Loyiso Gola is one of South Africa's most talented comedians. His unique sense of humour and affinity toward openly frank and observational commentary has carved him into a comedy genius. At 25, he's the first comedian to win a South African Comedy Award, and he's been nominated for Best Comedian of the Year at the ‘Stars of Mzansi Awards’ 2008.

Quantum portrays a day in South Africa through the lives of a diverse cast of characters: a recovering addict, an estranged daughter, a single mother, an uninspired filmmaker, orphans and a thug. Though living separate lives, they are intricately connected in unexpected ways.

After sexting, a teenage girl, Alia, realises she sent her mother a picture that was not meant for her. Alia needs to retrieve the picture from her mom's phone before it's too late.