Discoveries from South Africa World Cinema

Koos and his daughter Patrys are living happily in a tiny fisherman's village, but then a rich, sophisticated young man sweeps Patrys off her feet, and takes her to live with him in Johannesburg.

The Foster gang was a group of criminals who operated in South Africa, around Johannesburg and the Rand, between the months of July and September 1914, committing various acts of robbery and murder.

The film is about a rebellious schoolgirl, Het Heiberg, who grows up in difficult circumstances and has many problems at school, especially when the town gets a new principal.

South African Film

A Girl Who Goes on a Search for Her Father After Her Parents Decide to Divorce

Documentary with the Malan Family

South African Film

Andrew comes home one evening to find that his wife, Michelle has kidnapped Sipho, the man who had hijacked her a week earlier. Sipho came back to the house thinking that there was money hidden away. So begins a struggle of wits between the two, as Michelle thinks that the only solution is to kill him, whilst Andrew feels, that following the law is a better option. Through their struggles, we learn of the ordeal that Michelle had to endure with Sipho and his accomplice, the Other Man.

A film made by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) that depicts workers using song and dance as a form of resistance. A radical "workers' culture" was a major element of 1970s and 1980s insurgent trade unionism in South Africa.

South African Movie

A woman asleep begins to dream. It is a dream that distorts her perception of time and space in relation to her mundane daily tasks—an illusion that evokes a surreal experience of the self.

Father’s Day is a short film about Alakhe a 12-year-old boy who is raised by a single mother. Being the nerd of the class, 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 a can of worms. Eventually he discovers who his real father is.

One elephant, all alone in the massive park. Lovingly nicknamed Oupoot... a single elephant cow reckoned to be about 45 years old. It's probably the loneliest elephant in the world. The last remaining elephant in the Knysna forest.

Sekalli le Meokgo is a magic realism story about Kgotso, a recluse stickfighter who lives a solitary life high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho.

The film sheds light on a country in which, after twenty-seven years of war and three ­years of official peace, there is an overwhelming discrepancy between poor and rich. A sensitive and respectful approach towards a traumatised society.

One Table Two Elephants is a cinematic ethnography created by Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson that deals with race, nature and knowledge politics in the postcolonial city

“Black to USSR” opens a multi-episode epic about the dialogue between Africa and Russia. The project was launched in january 2022. it focuses on doctors, businessmen, politicians from the south african republic and mozambique. significantly, almost all of them are graduates of soviet higher educational institutions. one of the protagonists of the first episode is nelson mandela’s close associate and angela davis’s friend mosima gabriel tokyo sexwale, a businessman with an amazing political career.

An improvised tragi-queer film about an older gay man who was once the (caviar and) toast of the gay rave scene. He takes care of the homes of residents in a high-rise Johannesburg suburb, from older Jewish women to messier gay men. The houseboy is obsessively in love with his client, the celebrated captain of the Flamingos synchronized swimming team. He is the ultimate bunny boiler in the bunny suit. Rejected by the object of his affections, he takes refuge with a kinky lesbian/queer couple. Tensions rise as he drives a man-sized wedge in their relationship.

It’s been three months since Simon’s father passed away and to date his house has been left abandoned. Simon and Friday arrive one day to find their friend, Ntombi, waiting for them. The trio enter the house to do an inspection, and Friday soon becomes convinced the place is haunted, refusing to be left alone at any time. Simon, not sharing Friday’s supernatural suspicions, finds his friend’s nervousness amusing.

Mandela's World Cup reminds us of the tournament's hold on 200 million fans around the world and its power as a global symbol of inclusvity and sporting excellence. Mandela’s World Cup tells the compelling story of how the FIFA World Cup changed the way in which the world saw South Africa. And more importantly, the way South Africans saw themselves.

Just before the massacre of Donkergat during the Anglo-Boer war, Commandant Piet van Kloten buries a fortune in Kruger Rands in the area of the battlefield. So that he would remember where he buried the treasure he draws a rough map. He tears it in half and gives one half to his servant Plaatjies, extracting a promise that he will not let it fall into the wrong hands should he survive the battle.

The GALA Queer Archive, with the generous support of SAIH, commissioned a short film looking into the experiences of homeless transgender sex workers across Cape Town. In different areas across Cape Town, there are communities of homeless trans sex workers living under bridges, on open fields or wherever they can find a space in which to set up home. The Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa’s national state of disaster and the country being put under lockdown has had significant impacts on these women – and not only financially. (by Karin Tan)

Butoyi is a brilliant student. But while her brothers go to school, she has to stay home to help her mother. She dreams of education and independence, but how can she achieve this without a change in society?

Container makes visible the 'invisiblized' bodies enabling our consumer society. Confronting slavery through an ever transforming shipping container, the past becomes the present, the invisible become visible. We witness the shards of society: the ghosts of the past and living spectres of the modern world.

After losing his best friend to suicide, Zach has to face his feelings and his action.

Documentary on Jan Spies and Tolla van der Merwe

In a household where meal times are a delightful feast full of bonding, fellowship and good eating, 3 members of this tight-knit family are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus.

Drawing, literally, from the story of Daniel and Belshazzar, William Kentridge's film Weighing… and Wanting re-examines the legacy of Belshazzar's message in post-apartheid South Africa. While the political climate shared by Belshazzar's kingdom and apartheid-era South Africa is striking – in both, a ruling civilization relegates whole populations to subhuman status – Kentridge sets the scene of his film after the South African rule of oppression has been replaced by the ascent of the African National Congress. Left in the frame of apartheid's collapse is Kentridge's charcoal creation, Soho Eckstein, a former apartheid profiteer and businessman, contemplating the works of his own hand in the dissolution of love and in the building of industry.

The inhabitants of Bakadadji, a village located in a Senegalese national park, are trying to finance fencing to secure their fields from protected species of animals that ruin their crops year after year. In doing so, these farmers are claiming recognition for their rural way of life, to which they are deeply attached. Reflecting the village's everyday reality, this film talks about a meeting that does not actually take place, as well as how we view rural society, whose voice is barely heard.

Out in South Africa, a documentary about a country in the state of transition; specifically of lesbians and gays, black and white, Indian and Asian, from townships, cities and rural areas who speak of their lives and desires as homosexuals in post-apartheid South Africa. Hammer was invited to have a retrospective in summer, 1994, at the first Gay and Lesbian film festival on the African continent. She wanted to do more than screen her films and videos; she wanted to teach video production skills in the townships. These workshops provide the deeply moving stories lesbians and gays told to one another.

Satan meets together with his demons in order to discover how much they each have done to further the kingdom of darkness.

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Kommandokorps in South Africa organizes camps during school holidays for young white Afrikaner teenagers, teaching them self-defence and how to combat a perceived black enemy. The group’s leader, self-proclaimed ‘Colonel’ Franz Jooste, served with the South African Defence Force under the old apartheid regime and eschews the vision of a multicultural nation. In nine days, boys who once carried a budding belief in South Africa's unity become toughened men with racist ideas.

Rienie enjoys life with Karen and Riaan and thrives on the love they shower upon her. But sometimes, a damp pillow bears testimony that she misses Peet. Peet visits a rehabilitation centre. Cured of his habit, he goes to Karen and offers to buy his daughter back at the price he sold her for. Karen refuses. Though unintentional, Rienies behaviour affects the people around.

When Zep dumps his pregnant teenage girlfriend, and later discovers she committed suicide as a result of this, he acts out. Angry and confused, he undertakes a childish crime spree in order to deal with what has happened.

When a wealthy businessman’s wife is abducted by three thugs looking for a R20,000 ransom fee, the man will have to play a very clever game if he hopes to ever see his wife again.

PG du Plessis’ story is set in rural South Africa during the seventies. A farmer buys a broken little cast iron stove to restore and transports it home in his truck. Along the way he picks up a schoolboy hitchhiking home for the weekend. In conversation the farmer learns from the boy how cast iron should be welded. Only after dropping the boy off, does the farmer realise how much he has really learned from him.

In Soldiers of the Rock, the intriguing world of the South African mines is used to represent the whole country, its economy, history and culture. This exciting story focuses on human efforts to improve living conditions.Soldiers of the Rock is the story of the student Vuyo, whose father dies as a result of an accident in the mines. To come to terms with his father's death, Vuyo returns to his roots and reports for work at the goldmine in Johannesburg. This is about to be closed because of the dangerous working conditions. In the darkness of the mines, all men are equal. Above ground, the differences, their backgrounds, religions and cultures, come to light.

This rapid panorama isn't as smooth as the average 'Phantom Ride' - an early example of 'shaky-cam' war photography? Filmmaker WKL Dickson asked that the British public 'not too severely judge this picture,' demonstrating not only his awareness of the poorer quality of the image, but also his recognition of the importance of its content. The sequence is a military twist on the popular 'phantom ride' genre, captured from a moving train, and shows glimpses of the troops at rest. In sharp contrast to parade films this film shows soldiers and horses out of formation, providing insight into everyday life in camp.

Lollos's laughter has gone away and he can not get it anywhere! Disco, Lettie, Minki and Karla host an exciting talent competition in which everyone gets a chance to perform a hilarious item. Find out if Lollos…

In a South African township, where an argument over whether red or green apples are better causes the greatest divide in the town’s history, a young man, Thomas, falls in love with Thandi, who falls into the opposite camp.

Two cousins from a close-knit rural community have opposing plans to develop their homeland on South Africa's Wild Coast.

Deep in the forest, Ash, a young beaver with fangs, struggles with his identity.

Through the eyes of William Maves, the personal driver of Nico Marchesi, we follow a deadly clash between two rival families in South Africa, where blackmail, betrayal, and revenge turn love, loyalty, and blood into weapons—and one misstep can be fatal.

Featuring remarkably honest interviews with a cross-section of South African women, Marxism & Period Pain takes an in-depth look at women’s experiences of menstruation, locating those experiences within the gendered structures of capitalism.

In the Indian township of Durban, where post-apartheid violence still simmers, Lishana cares for her dying mother. Through her photographic practice, she reflects on life and death, past and present, navigating between the tangible and the mystical.

A blind Afrikaaps hip hop storyteller in Eersterivier reconnects with his past through music, weaving memory, community, and survival into a rhythmic journey of feeling while reclaiming narrative power.

South African filmmaker Tshililo waha Muzila walks the Camino de Santiago in an orange life jacket, exposing Europe’s migrant crisis while reflecting on colonial legacies shaping Black identity across continents.

Peaceful Warrior encourages people of colour to get in touch with their history, their ancestors’ knowledge and traditional philosophical wisdom. In a journey of spiritual healing we see a transformation from the ‘fierce’ to the ‘peaceful’ warrior. All this takes place in a hypnotic landscape of ancient Egyptian cosmology, wombs and floating vegetables, with Tabita Rezaire practising kemetic yoga, twerking with wild hip movements to release the power of her womb, and propagating a ‘decolonial diet’ as a way of healing the trauma of (colonial) memory. Peaceful Warrior is a self-help kit for radical self-love and balancing body and mind to wage a more efficient spiritual struggle.

Die Drie Klein Varkies oorgeplaas vanaf VHS - The Three Little Pigs dubbed in Afrikaans converted from VHS

This time Amsugi faces a challenge from a new potential daughter-in-law, who is highly educated, and extremely wealthy. Amsugi finds that she is well over her head, trying to out wit and out smart this new 'Tamil' daughter-in-law, Vimla. Vimla takes much joy in playing son against mother. She looks at it as an experience as she has never had a mother-in-law in her last three marriages. The movie sees the return of all popular characters such as the closet smoking Bommi, the compulsive eating Saras, the conservative well-dressed Kamla, and the ever girl-finding Reuben. They are joined by a host of new faces, who bring much comedy and excitement to the well-established franchise.

In 1969, Imam Abdullah Haron was incarcerated and killed in detention in Cape Town, South Africa. A much loved community leader, he was active within an inactive community in raising awareness of the plight of his compatriots living under apartheid. During the 60s, Imam Haron became more active and began travelling abroad to raise funds for impoverished families back home. Mixing animation, documentary and stock footage, this short film looks at the last few years of the Imam's life and death.[3] It is told by his grandson, the filmmaker Khalid Shamis, through the eyes of a child

In gang-ridden Westbury, Johannesburg, newly minted paramedic Wade Jacobs tries to escape a life of crime. But when his uncle, a gang leader, is gunned down, saving him pulls Wade into a deadly turf war – where loyalty, violence and justice collide.