Discoveries from South Africa World Cinema

The story of adult siblings who, after the sudden death of their father, are forced to return to their childhood home.

Shirley Adams spends her days caring for her disabled son, Donovan - he was shot in the back of the neck on his way home from school one afternoon over a year ago. Since then the Adams family has lost all their worldly possessions to medical bills. Shirley has no money, no job and no husband - he left. The shooter is one of Donovan's childhood friends. Her reaction to the betrayal is so overwhelming that she chooses not to tell Donovan in fear of further damaging his already unstable emotional state. Determined to make a change in their lives, Shirley actively decides to embrace their new circumstances, hoping that Donovan will follow her example.

Faan se Trein is about a simple-minded man living in a tiny Karoo community. When his father dies, leaving all his possessions to Faan and the church, greed rears its head and divides the community... Until love restores their sanity.

An astronaut, known only as The Survivor, returns from space only to find Earth a desolate, post-nuclear wasteland. Spending the next ten years searching for others, he finds rumors and signs of a hidden underground city. He finds a woman who claims to know where the city is, but she is kidnapped before she can tell him. Desperate to locate this hidden remnant of humanity, he begins his pursuit of her captors.

A story of love and friendship set against the violence of Apartheid in South Africa. It is a story of the ups and downs of the lives of the three main characters, and how their lives intersect over the years.

Exiled from his native South Africa, South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela is pulled between two worlds. In the late 1980s, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, led by his mentor and fierce Anti-Apartheid advocate Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, launches a boycott against Hugh’s friend Paul Simon over his township music-inspired album 'Graceland', accusing Simon of violating the United Nations’ Cultural Boycott. Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba joins forces with Masekela — who sees music as a powerful weapon in the struggle — to create the Graceland band, a supergroup designed to bring South Africa’s voice to the world.

Ace Ngubeni, a slick lobola negotiator, faces his toughest deal yet for a shy client - only to find the stakes are higher than cash.

Kwagga Robertse owns a farm shop in the fictional Southern African country of Nambabwe and usually cons foreign tourists by pretending to kill a lion, thus earning him the nickname 'Urumbo' (Lion Killer) from the country's natives. Kwagga is upset when the UN sends a platoon of incompetent soldiers with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (U.N.T.A.G.), to monitor the peace process, and ensure free and fair elections after the Nambabwean War for Independence. The U.N.T.A.G's American leader, Major Bradick D. Mackay and his second-in-command, Captain Zapman are offered a diamond worth a lot of money in the U.S., and they must pay 200,000 USD to Duan Robertse, Kwagga's competitive brother trying to buy a farm left to them by their dead father.

A coming of age movie the world has never seen While South Africa battles through civil unrest and the final days of apartheid, Jeffrey Greenbaum battles through his raging hormones and the final days of high school. Will he be able to lose his virginity before the country goes up in flames?

TV movie drama from South Africa

The misadventures Vaatjie Venter, a talented pastry chef and the top student at the hotel school where he is training. Vattjie becomes the lead candidate to win a scholarship to train under world famous master chef Pierre Cousteau in Paris. But Vaatjie's charmed life is tested to its limits when his jealous classmate James tries to prevent Vaatije from winning the opportunity of a lifetime.

Desperate for her three single sons to get married, a mother promises her house to the first one to tie the knot, setting off a race to the altar.

Jean and Sheryl are getting married. He is Afrikaans. She is Jewish. Their families are tense and Lukas, the best man - has been on a drinking spree and forgotten to confirm the band. To complicate matters more, the ancestral ring has been delayed because Sheryl's relatives are lost en-route to the wedding.

In the heart of bustling Johannesburg, a mismatched duo takes the crime-fighting scene by storm in a South African action-comedy. When a by-the-book cop is reluctantly paired with a smooth-talking informant, sparks fly as they navigate the treacherous underworld of drug trafficking. With unlikely camaraderie, they pursue a ruthless gang of drugdealers, leaving chaos and laughter in their wake.

It’s been a few years since Jennifer Kandasamy and Shanti Naidoo rekindled their once-tainted friendship, and the two could not be happier that their children, Jodi and Prishen, are to be wed. It’s one week before the wedding and the mothers start falling apart in a roller coaster of hysteria, laughter and tears as the young couple’s relationship is put to the ultimate test as their wedding day draws nearer!

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

Jonathan, a dreamer and wannabe stand-up comedian in his late 20's, still lives with parents. After another failed open mic performance he gets drunk and crashes his father's car on the way home. This is the last straw for his loving but fed up parents and his father kicks him out of the house. Having nowhere to go he becomes a carguard. After a very hostile reception by the other carguards, the eldest carguard decides to take Johnathan under his wing and teaches him the finer art of being a carguard and more important he teaches Jonathan about life and how to survive as an outcast. Jonathan also falls in love with a girl way out of his league. Will he be able to apply the lessons learned to make peace with his family, earn the forgiveness of his mentor and win the heart of the most beautiful girl he ever met?

Layla Fourie, a young single-mother in South Africa, receives a job assignment as polygraphist. In the constant presence of mistrust, lies and fear Layla soon becomes a suspect herself.

Due to his father's work, Kolya and his parents move to Africa. Everything that surrounds him: the embassy where his father works, a villa behind a high fence, and a closed school. Kolya's only friend is the African gardener's daughter Loli. Despite the language barrier and the difference in traditions, they find means to understand each other without words.

A white employer swapping identities with his Black employee to experience each other's lives and whatever blessings and burdens they bring with.

Anya du Plessis returns to Philadelphia, South Africa from New York to repair the fractious relationship with her father Marius, and to help with the struggling farm. She finds her father's crutch for dealing with her mother's passing, is an obsession with his beer brewing hobby, he believes is the answer to their financial woes. When leaving New York, Anya is also leaving behind Jacob, her boyfriend and work colleague, and the last thing she expects is to fall for a suave, charming stranger. Ruan is on a mission from his Brewing Company, to identify a new winning beer recipe with which to enter the annual craft beer competition, and comes across Marius' farm and special brew, the only thing standing in his path to craft beer glory, is the feisty daughter of the farmer.

Pharmaceutical underdogs dig their own grave when they put a price on the head of a desperate man.

While doing field work in Australia’s Gibson Desert, Snowy Grinder meets up with a weirdo named Archie. Together they set off to find the missing Dr. Jim Hartwell and Monomotapa, the Palace of Purple Diamonds...but they haven't accounted for the Gods.

An ambitious chef from South Africa enters a green card marriage with a cash-strapped line cook from Atlanta. The couple journey to Cape Town to gather proof of their relationship, only to find that deceiving the government is easy compared to fooling your own family.

The Sandgrass People is set in South Africa and tells the story of Dalmain, a man who gets wrongly accused of murder so goes on the run. When a local tribe helps him, he becomes embroiled in their plight too.

Set in 1962 MANDELA’S GUN is a political thriller, based on Mandelas African Odyssey. As Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army Umkhonto we Sizwe (the MK) he undergoes military training in Algeria and Ethiopia while surviving assassination attempts and betrayal. In South Africa he is finally arrested with the connivance of the CIA In the crucible of the surging African Liberation Movements of the early 60s not only does he study the art of war but also leadership and political survival. MANDELA’S GUN is a thrilling biopic, supported by eyewitness accounts from Mandelas advisors and comrades.

The story of a guy trying to get his washing done, late one fateful night.

A black revolutionary group kidnaps a couple of young white women in a southern African state in the 1970s. They ask for a specific female reporter to interview them. She arrives and decides to stay with them until the girls are released.

Set in modern-day South Africa, it tells the story of Anna Bruwer, who avenges years of abuse suffered at the hands of her stepfather and the court case that ensues.

Schucks is back and this time he's Gatvol. The rampant crime rate and unprecedented violence have finally become too much and Schucks together with his sidekick, little Alf, is joining the chicken run to Australia. However this promises to be the flight of his life given that the evil despot Samoosa Woestyn is stalking him.

A cash-strapped hotel manager is forced to stave off interest from wealthy buyers at a public auction whilst hosting his in-laws on their wedding anniversary.

Wim and Kevin work at a laundromat. By day, things are boring, but when the sun sets they party in their clients’ clothes. During a party, they discover a chopped-off finger in a client’s suit’s jacket. The underhanded owner of the finger, his sons, and a ruthless traitor are hot on Wim and Kevin’s heels and have no regard for their safety.

While visiting a massacre memorial, a photographer finds herself drawn to a local woman. But their romance stirs up painful memories of a shared past.

A poignant tale of friendship and resilience between two South African children, Tsepo and Jannie, set against the contrasting backdrops of rural Africa and 1970s New York City. Their bond faces trials as they navigate the challenges of injury and the quest for healing.

Saul Barnard grew up in a family of woodcutters. The woodcutters are scared of the elephants in the forest, but there's one elephant that never seems to threaten Saul. Tired of being exploited by wood buyers, Saul takes a stand and his father chases him away. He goes to work on the wood buyer MacDonald's wood yard, where he gets to know MacDonald's daughter, Kate, and falls in love with her. After a few years he leaves MacDonald and joins the first prospectors in the forest, searching for gold. Millwood becomes a small town with hotels and bars and houses. Kate appears again.

Daryn Miller is a cry-baby wimp, who still carries his baby fat. He isn’t a cunning businessman like his granddad, who opened a fitness club in a Johannesburg suburb 60 years ago. And, he’s definitely not a winner like his father who – as a successful bodybuilder – helped the business flourish. Under Daryn’s management, debts rise and membership decreases. On top of that, he finds a hostile competitor in Stars Fitness, a chain run by a dyed-in-the-wool career woman, who prefers to destroy her competitors instead of out-compete them.

When sex worker Tess falls pregnant, she has to fight to keep her past from swallowing her whole.

Larissa finds out her husband is cheating on her with her colleague. She does the unexpected, forgives her husband and decides to team up with him to outsmart the colleague who's trying to destroy their marriage. But not everything is as it appears.

Lt. Gerhard Muller is the son of a pilot who was killed while flying with the South African Air Force in Korea. At the time his best friend and fellow pilot, Chris Fourie, was the only one to return from their mission and since then there have been various rumours about what happened. Now Gerhard is joining a Mirage squadron at Waterkloof Air Force Base, where Fourie will be his immediate superior. In addition his grandfather, Colonel Greeff, is the base commander. Also joining the squadron is Gerhard's best friend, Martin Bekker, who is the only one who knows about Gerhard's recent dizzy spells. It also emerges that there was a relationship between Gerhard's mother and Commander Fourie before she and his father got married.

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 hall before she travels to London. Tomorrow, legions of police will force the residents of Gerty street out of their homes and they will be trucked to a desolate township, ten miles out of the city. Refusing to face the bleak reality of black South African life, Badman has decided that he will fight to the death for his home. But fate, thrusts Eve Msomi, whom he has loved from a distance, into his orbit. And on this night that bears this beautiful encounter, Badman's gang, The Vipers, sensing his vulnerability, turns on them both.

Adventurer Allan Quatermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an attempt to locate an explorer who went missing during his search for King Solomon's gold mines.

This local ensemble comedy is set in 2003, as a group of working-class South Africans try to come to terms with their changed society. Seen through the eyes of a family dog, we watch as friends, neighbours and lovers try to deal with their challenging relationships.

In contemporary South Africa, 18-year-old Adam Coetzee, whose life takes an unexpected turn when his mother, Carol, enrolls him in the Prinsloo Bush School. Once at the Bush School, Adam quickly discovers that the school's training methods, led by the rigid and militaristic Derek, are unlike anything he's ever experienced.

A Half-Caste is a Human/Leopard hybrid believed to feast on unsuspecting Travelers, but after Bobby is found soaked in blood, the police think that he murdered his friends. After hearing tell of the half-caste, a half-leopard, half-man said to exist in the wilds of South Africa, four filmmakers set out on safari in search of the mysterious creature. But is the bloodthirsty beast real, or just the stuff of local legend?

A former member of South Africa's infamous death squad 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.

Gerald King, who is closer to death than life gets dumped with his 15 -year-old grandson, when the child's mother dies in a drunken car crash. Both the boy and grandfather are shocked into a new reality.

In this witty father-son story, we are introduced to Varun, a former scammer, and River, a trans drag performer, as they venture on a road trip across South Africa to rescue River's long-lost mother from a rehab clinic in eSwatini. River’s only worry is missing Her Majesty’s Drag Competition and the opportunity to win the prize money to pay for his top surgery. With secrets bubbling to the surface and a competition to win, their relationship will be tested like never before.

Miriam Makeba was one of the first African musicians who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots. Miriam Makeba was forced into exile in 1959. She sang for John F. Kennedy, performed with Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone, was married to Hugh Masekela and also Stokely Carmichael. Her life was tumultuous. She always stood for truth and justice. She fought for the oppressed most importantly for black Africans, as a campaigner against apartheid. She died November 2008 after a concert in Italy. Mika Kaurismäki's documentary, traces fifty years of her music and her performing life. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through interviews with her contemporaries we discover the remarkable journey of Miriam Makeba.

The story focuses on the learning curve of the fictional school, Hoërskool die Anker. A few rebellious teenagers of different races and cultures are sent to a camp that helps young people work through these issues. Along the way, they learn to accept each other and also find faith.

Despite fearing for her life, Ugandan medical anthropologist, poet, and queer rights activist Stella Nyanzi confronts the authoritarian rule of President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda through provocative poetry, “radical rudeness,” and acts of defiant protest. After being arrested and imprisoned for criticizing the government, she refuses to be silenced and continues her fight for political change and LGBTQ+ rights. Following Nyanzi through her activism, imprisonment, and political ambitions, the film also reveals the personal cost of her outspoken struggle, exploring how her fierce public battles and powerful personality affect the lives of her children and family while offering a broader portrait of contemporary Uganda.

Yvette has dreamed of performing Romeo and Juliet since starting high school. Now, in her final year, the headmaster has decided to use the school's entire arts and culture budget to fund a T20 event. In a last ditch effort to put on the play, they ask the school's cricket hero, Marko Marais, to play the role of Romeo.

In an attempt to stop rhino poaching, railway chef Sonny Frank and a ten year old boy called Fearless kidnap the ambassador of a South-East Asian country.

A honeymooning couple take a vacation in a remote country bungalow. Before long, they’re visited by two backwoods psychos. Terror, assault, and rape are inevitable. The U.S. video release from Genesis (released in 1988 under the title DEMON LUST) is missing ten minutes.

This thriller investigates the mysterious assassination of a gay pastor in rural South Africa. Without witnesses or explanations, the crime appears to the police and others as a jigsaw puzzle without enough pieces. The police then suspect and arrest people based on the usual prejudices, black and coloured people who plant marijuana in this case. Meanwhile, the true assassin not only goes his way unpunished from the very beginning, but becomes one of the rural town's most respected citizens. The sheriff at one point does begin having certain suspicions, and from there on the bulk of the plot is played out. The location is a very arid part of South Africa, so with so much desert rock, there are bound to be quarries. Some may reveal important secrets.

A bush pilot and a senator's wife try to survive in the jungles of Africa after witnessing an assassination.

Tessa walks through the small fishing community in her wedding dress every year on the night of the nineteenth, since she was raped on the eve of her wedding and her fiancé committed suicide. Piece-by-piece, she gathers information about the identity of the rapist.

A support group travels to the Orange River. A doctor, 2 moms, a daughter and a suicidal woman leave for their "veldskool" trip. Many trials, tribulations and truths are revealed as they go on this epic adventure.

My F*k, Marelize! tells the story of Heidi, a strong-willed woman who hides her cancer from her family, and Marelize, her ill-fated daughter who must learn how to ride a bike so she can become an au pair in the Netherlands. What could go wrong? Based on a true story that inspired a nation.

This family guy's got it all wrong. Instead of building a united and loving bunch, he destroys entire families in a single swipe. He must have gone on one-to-many family vacations.

The New Boats is an investigative documentary that presents an eye-opening look at the impact of international industrialized fishing in West African waters and its disastrous effect on local communities at a critical point in Sierra Leone's history.