Discoveries from South Africa World Cinema

A mother and her son are kidnapped by a group of rebel deserters. In a desperate attempt to rescue them, the father and his assistant ranger tracks down the group to save his family from being harmed.

When Mr. Dlamini, a wealthy businessman, and his wife, Gugu, fall victim to a trio of crooks seeking revenge and money, they are forced to flee to their beach house.

Promises centres around Ntombi. Her father has abandoned the family and her mother spends all her time with new boyfriend, Zakes, leaving Ntombi to take care of her little sister, Zinzi. The situation at home impacts negatively on Ntombi’s performance at school, where she has been missing practices in the lead up to the school’s talent competition. Ntombi is attracted to Mzi, one of collegue’s hottest guys, but all is not what it seems and she enlists the help of her friend and confidant Olwethu to determine what secrets Mzi and, her mother’s boyfriend, Zakes are hiding.

"Land Changes Hands, but the Bees Remain in the Hive" is a short, found footage film which delves into the controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) initiated by former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2000. The program aimed to redistribute white-owned farmland to Zimbabweans across cultural boundaries, and was often accompanied by violence. Two decades later, a young white Zimbabwean woman reflects on her childhood experiences during the primary years of the land invasions and the lasting effects on her family, as well as the persistent racism within the white farming community.

South African Film

William Kentridge’s Notes Towards a Model Opera (2014–15) is an 11-minute video work that pulses with visual ingenuity and historical resonance. Crafted for Beijing’s Ullens Center in 2015, it dissects the Cultural Revolution’s eight model operas—propaganda ballets and plays designed to forge Mao’s ideal revolutionary spirit. Kentridge transforms their rigid ideology into a fluid, multi-screen meditation on revolution’s dreams and failures, blending China’s past with global echoes.

A short allegorical animated film. A strange dog steals Ugandan village boy Akello's precious kalimba. Akello follows after it and finds himself in the clutches of the Sugarcane Man.

When two separate couples travel out to a game farm for a relaxing, romantic week-end getaway at a small game lodge, they are fully unprepared for the unorthodox couple that runs the establishment.

While on a camping trip, three teenage brothers go from being the hunted to the hunters in an effort to snare and catch a dangerous thief.

Amahle’s romantic anniversary getaway turns super awkward when she runs into her ex and his new girlfriend. They end up on a series of double dates which waken feelings she’d thought long gone.

While out on a cross-country run in unfamiliar territory, two friends stumble upon an illegal drug operation in the woods. Soon taken hostage by the notorious drug-lord, they face the threat of becoming drug slaves themselves. Forced to work the plantation for the man known as “Cobra”, the two friends will have to rely on one another and use their wits if they wish to defeat the armed guards holding them captive.

Never Give Up is an inspiring drama based on the true story of South African icon Pinky Mothie. Set from 1960s Durban to the present day, the film follows Pinky’s journey from a determined young woman who marries for love despite family opposition, to becoming part of a celebrated entertainment power couple during apartheid. After the tragic death of her husband, Mothie, Pinky is left to raise four children alone while facing debt and hardship. Refusing to surrender, she rebuilds their business, uplifts others through youth development and women’s empowerment, and becomes a respected figure in the entertainment industry. It is a powerful story of resilience, love, and perseverance.

Alister Fortuin, who was known as Jan Bloed, is a former gangster and member of the Fast Guns and Varados gangs in Westbury. We follow his story from childhood to young man to prisoner and learn about how he turned his life around in prison. After 22 years, he is released on parole, and he marries Engeline Fortuin. We take a walk with him through Westbury and see all the places that mean something to him. He introduces us to characters from his past and present. We meet Alister’s mom, Felicity, who says, to her, he was always just Alister, not Jan Bloed. Alister opens about his son in prison, Vercaino. He dreams of being a better father and a positive influence on Vercaino. As a pastor he strives to change the hearts and minds of the new generation. Will there be a relapse into crime for this family, or will they stand strong? Will they walk the straight and narrow together in Westbury, or will their paths take them in different directions?

One day, a mans microwave suddenly changes everything into popcorn, until he goes to far...

South African Film

South African Film

Following a prophetic vision, Chief Mabaso recovers his ancestral lands and honors his name Zwelihle (Beautiful Land) by guiding his people to preserve it.

These women sell on the subway, one of the few possible jobs given their educational or family disadvantages. It is a way to combine care work and the ability to support their homes. Some have been dedicated to this activity for decades.

The work of Senzeni Marasela addresses the experiences of Black South African women, particularly during Apartheid. In Women's Waiting, Women's Searching, Marasela is filmed in Venice, wearing one of these dresses and carrying suitcases. Alone among residents and tourists, she asserts her history through her mere presence.

Akili, a young refugee in Rwanda who has endured a long and painful journey, sits with strangers and invites them to read her story.

17 Year old Phuzi is chasing his dream of being a kwaito star but Gaza has a different plan for him. In a world dominated by gangs and crime Phuzi finds himself implicated in the murder of a local tuck-shop owner.

The film that the mining industry tried to shut down -- telling the story of the Marikana massacre and its political fallout in the most unequal country on the planet. In 2012, 34 striking mineworkers were murdered by South African State Police in what was the most deadly day of state repression since the country's new constitution in 1994. The news of the killings rocked the country, leading to a year with more protests and actions the country hadn't seen since the end of Apartheid. The film explores how the mineral wealth -rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa- has been sold to foreign capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite individuals – and how traditional communities have been divided in this process. The story is told through a number of key characters who drive the narrative. From a mineworker who survived the Marikana massacre, to artists, community activists, union leaders, and lawyers.

When Dlamini’s daughter, Dudu, is kidnapped for ransom, he calls on his old friend Charlie Steel, a renowned Private Investigator. Charlie attempts to infiltrate the gang responsible, but is soon exposed by one of his ex-army comrades, a vicious murderer by the name of Jimmy, working for the gangster known as Sonny.

Casper de Vries is back with another One Man Show

A Black transmasculine Uber driver’s car becomes dangerously possessed when a German hippie offloads her trauma demon on a ride through the racially segregated, tourist-infested Cape Town.

Lebohang Kganye’s video was inspired by her visit to the Owl House, created by outsider artist Helen Martins, in Nieu Bethesda, South Africa. The house and land are decorated with fields of ground glass and more than 300 handmade statues of owls, camels, peacocks, pyramids, and people. Villagers there told Kganye elaborate tales about Martins, which she re-created as silhouette cut-outs, each tale playing out as a different scene.

If you ignore the music, Liza Ludick’s new short film, Noise & Neighbours, can be classified as a silent movie. Still, with striking animation and the moving piano notes of composer Wesley West, the silence in this movie is significantly meaningful. Veteran actor Tobie Cronjé and newcomer Olwethu Kuene play the roles of Helmut and Bolelo, two neighbours who can’t stand each other, but who, through the universal language of music, assume unique roles in fulfilling each other’s lives.

“Umtsha Wendoda” is a story that follows the journey of two young boys to a waterfall they would visit when they were younger. However, on this journey, the past times of bubbling youth are replaced with the crushing weight of growing up, accepting your fate and finding your flow.

Schalk Bezuidenhout Comedy Special

A voyeuristic joyride, which offers a sneak peek into the gritty underground world of a look-but-don't-touch club. The Voyeur is transfixed by a hypnotic cat-woman who stalks her prey, culminating in a twisted tryst.

Luwi is rushing to the health centre. He's heard that contraception is dangerous, and he must warn his wife before it's too late! A high-impact TV ad that reached millions across East and Central Africa.

After hearing a tale of a mysterious lost treasure, an old man’s family heads off on a perilous journey only to suffer the same fate as the shipwrecked survivors from sixty years ago.

A game ranger and his chief ranger set out on a daring rescue mission when his two nephews are kidnapped by dangerous poachers deep in the African bush.

For centuries, indigenous people have lived sustainably while resisting invaders on South Africa's Wild Coast. In this documentary about a David and Goliath court-case struggle against Shell, these communities succeeded in halting oil and gas exploration, winning ongoing protection for their ocean and culture.

Detectives go down a rabbit hole of lies and deceit to uncover a social media system that is plagued by individuals who will do anything for attention.

In Pied Piper's Voyage, Lebohang Kganye constructs a visual narrative of animation from black-and-white photographs arranged on wooden panels. Positioned between performance and installation, the work revisits her family history during Apartheid.

Shot secretly in 1982, this film documents the story of young members of the African National Congress, sentenced to death or to life imprisonment in South Africa for their activities to end apartheid. Interviews the parents they left behind when they fled the country to join the liberation movement after the Soweto uprising, talks to student leaders and trade unionists, and addresses the question of armed struggle in South Africa.

James Lea’s love for sharks turns into a mission to save them from the devastating shark fin trade, driven by heartbreak and determination.

South African Documentary

South African Documentary

William Kentridge (1955) was inspired in this case by the novel by Italo Svevo The Conscience of Zeno (1923). Kentridge concentrates on the main character whose fears and interior torments reflect the social violence and the brutality of the First World War. Through Zeno, the artist explores the development of notions of history and belonging as well as the way in which our identities are defined by social and political changes. Unlike traditional animated cinema based on thousands of drawings, Kentridge composes his work using a small series of drawings which are successively erased, redrawn and photographed throughout the various stages of creation, which he then mixes with paper cut-outs and archive images. This technique, which he has made his own, thus perfectly illustrates the process of memory which erases, alters and gives rise to multiple images.

This short film is a story of love between a wooden man and stove child.

Documentary about Sipho Singiswa's delayed rite of passage into manhood, the traditional circumcision of the Xhosa people in Africa. It also shows his brother Vuyo's refusal to take part in it himself, because, among other reasons, he is adopted and gay.

Lana is planning a road trip through South Africa with her best friends Karin, Mieke and Juan. As the road trip progresses Lana's friends find out that this road trip will be her last.

Famous artists bring Christmas songs to our living rooms. A production full of joy and precious moments of being together for the whole family.

In Umntuntu, Siwani presents the mythology of certain Xhosa clans – a people native to the southern African continent, traditionally established in the Eastern Cape province – whose members believe they were born from natural bodies of water. In the video, some figures wear traditional Xhosa garments, while others are dressed in Christian attire.

2 brothers from the affluent suburbs of Johannesburg angst about the future of their garage band, Public Enema.

After studying abroad in Cape Town, a young filmmaker returns to Chongqing, navigating the complexity of modern life in China and fragile family ties, where grief, memory, and longing surface amid distance, silence, and change.

A group of curious middle school teenagers uncover hidden secrets in their local fellowship, unaware of the devastating consequences that will endanger their innocence and safety.

Saltwater crocodiles are the most controversial wildlife species in Australia. Even though they have dominated Australia’s coastal margins for 240 million years, their continued existence depends on us.

Seven years after a nuclear war decimated Earth, Heinrich is a wanderer who for the past four years thinks he's the last one left on the planet. He soon learns he's not when he meets Em, a young woman with a secret.

For the love of keys and chaos. A story of obsession, creativity, and chaos, The Typewriter brings you into the mind of Sam, a man consumed by his typewriter.

The sequel to Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom's popular film "Brokkie Van My Hart".

A young man gives his opinion on the state of modern cinema.

In Liminale, a film with Hanneke Schutte as screenwriter and director, Inge Beckmann portrays Mia, a depressed woman afflicted by distressing memories. Hoping to deal with her trauma, Mia is subjected to radical futuristic therapy in an institution set in the future. But while she experiences the surrealist liminal space during therapy, she discovers the surprising origins of the treatment and must gather energy to face her demons and seek forgiveness.

Recovering from a severe illness (likely typhoid), W.K.L. Dickson received word from London that the audience's enthusiasm for the military was lessening. He sent back this celebration of the expanding empire in response, capturing the annexation ceremony of 28 May 1900. "Thanks to the Biograph, which faithfully recorded this magnificent scene," Dickson later wrote, "the people of the world who were not as fortunate as those present will see what it saw, and doubtless sing 'God Save The Queen'".

A teenage refugee from Greece (1927-2020) becomes a relentless human-rights lawyer in the crucible of a violent racist regime in South Africa.