Discoveries from South Africa World Cinema

Frans, a thirty-eight-year-old documentary director, is forced to take a step back and reevaluate his life after he was unexpectedly left in front of the altar for the second time.

A warmhearted slice-of-life story showing viewers how important family reunions are, psychologically and emotionally. But also a satire of white privileged church going South African society and their normalization.

The son of a banker decides to steal money from the bank to double it through gambling and then returning it. Unfortunately for him, he is being watched as he succeeds, and interesting events and twists follow.

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.

During a self-taped audition for a film about the apocalypse, 15-year-old Tyler realizes that the end might not be fiction after all.

Rachel struggles to survive a drought that has hit her farm and her life. A water-diviner brings dramatic changes to her life. She is confronted with a desert deep within herself and discovers a way to survive.

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.

Helder, a kind hearted evangelical pastor living in the village of Manjacaze, Mozambique . He struggles with his own faith in God as he fails to engage and grow his congregation through his sermons. In secret he seeks for a solution in witchcraft. From there on things seem to go well until they don’t.

Karli suddenly turns up at her mother Rita's house with bad news - her brother Darius has gone mountain climbing and is missing...

South African TV Movie

After many years, Kandas (Ryno Hattingh), literally runs into his primary school sweetheart, Kiepie (Debbie Labuschagne), on the university campus. Immediately, the spark between them is back! However, Kiepie is engaged to a bright young lawyer (Mieder Olivier), who drags Kandas to court over an accident.

A story about a fictional South African police base on the border between Angola and the former South West Africa. While patrolling, a mail convoy is ambushed and most of the soldiers are shot. The captain is rescued, but one of his constables is taken prisoner. The constable’s sister is also the captain’s girlfriend. GRENSBASIS 13 (Border Post 13) tells the story of the captain’s suspenseful and action-filled rescue attempt in order to bring his sweetheart’s brother home.

Julie a student busy with her studies falls in love with her boyfriends uncle.He's gest jealus and starts to treat both in a commical and spitful manner.Julie and her new love starts to do free fall together.Her boyfriend is very angry and cuts his uncle's parachute but it turns out to be Julie's......

Tornado is a true life story of patience, endurance and passion. The picture tells the story of two damaged souls: Pierre, a depressed and damaged young man and Tornado, an emotionally tormented horse. Sensing Tornado’s potential, Pierre travels to Noenieput, in the Groen Kalahari, to find Barrie Burger, a horse whisperer. With Barrie’s advice, Pierre and Tornado embark on a journey of healing

A forgotten hotel. Two groups of men fight to the death, for a kingdom dreamt up by a rooster. A forgotten hotel. Two groups of men. All seem locked in this strange architecture from a previous era. Why they cannot leave the place, we do not know. A red and a black rooster share with the men the reclusion, witnesses of a battle, an abstract war, a nightmare.

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.

When the remains of an apartheid-era policeman are discovered 60 years after he went missing, a retired singer revisits her past to help with the investigation. But how much does she know, and what is she holding back?

South African wilderness 1800's. Five years after their mother died, Rachel, a girl on the cusp of adolescence and 5-year-old Jamie find themselves on their way to the virgin gold fields with their father, Herman, as he tries to start a new life. When Jamie goes missing in a freak snow blizzard, Rachel braves the storm to look for her little brother.

POP DIVAS brings an unforgettable tribute show and previously unseen collabs of legendary female pop icons to South Africa. The phenomenal Bonnie Tyler is set to thrill the South African crowd with her timeless hits ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and ‘Holding out for a Hero’. The lineup also includes the enchanting voice of South Africa’s legendary PJ Powers and international star Ellen Foley, who sang the worldwide hit “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” with Meat Loaf. Nádine will host and perform alongside with pop sensation BlackByrd who will pay a heartfelt tribute to Dolly Parton’s timeless songs. The most significant female voices of all time – from Whitney and Tina to Amy, Sinead, Olivia – will be honored. It will ensure an unforgettable night of music and nostalgia as we celebrate the voices that defined an era.

In 1961, when the African National Congress, an organization whose purpose was to fight against the apartheid regime, was threatened by the increasingly repressive policies of the South African government, it resorted to armed struggle and created uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), its paramilitary wing, led by Nelson Mandela.

A disgruntled South African woman leaves her fiancé and embezzles money from her job to pursue her dream of being a Broadway star in New York City.

In February of 1941, South African troops are in action against the Italian forces on the northern frontier of Kenya. An Italian invasion, aimed at pushing the Allied Forces out of Central and East Africa, is imminent. The South African Command realizes it has no forces at its disposal capable of stopping the Italian objective, so they resort to a grand bluff...

A feared gang leader is released on parole after seven years. Has Map Jacobs changed, or is he still the bully? A family and community drama that takes place against the forced relocations from the Cape to the Plains. This piece gives a look at the way of life of the uprooted, their love and pain and the desperate longing for a better existence in a system that especially fails the defenseless.

A ragtag bunch of musicians are forced to rob a bank during the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival in the hope they will save their iconic, but in-debt nightclub in the Bo Kaap.

The year is 1993, democracy is at hand, and South Africa's townships are burning. Gugu, a sixteen year-old from a Zulu speaking family falls in love with Andile, an eighteen year-old Xhosa youth. Their love is frowned upon by both communities.

When the wife of a successful black businessman with roots in the struggle against apartheid is murdered by a young stranger who knows his name, he has to go back into his own past to find the answers that will lead him to the killer. But when he finds him and the reasons for the murder, will vengeance still be possible?

Based on real events in and around Cape Town, two paramedics risk their lives while attempting to save a patient's life.

An Afrikaans film. Two women, two murders. One homicide reflects the ultimate act of self-centredness, the other the greatest selfless act of them all.

Thando and Sbusiso grew up together and went to the same school, but when Thando finished school she wasn't accepted into university and Sbusiso went to college to study as a Artisan but when Thando stayed behind she started smoking drugs.

An early short from Cedric Sundstrom

‘Snuff film’ with a little boy witnessing a real life on-camera murder.

Helena Joubert lost herself somewhere between her Varsity love, the big, crazy wedding, and her two hyperactive kids. She and hubby Gustav exchanged their passionate relationship for a permanent seize-fire. The once uninhibited and vibrant journalist is now just a few fading photographs on the wall. And then, her world is shattered when Gustav apparently starts an affair with the very big investor who just might be the savior of his company – Elzaan Mostert. Enter Helena’s alter ego, the can-do, let’s-make-a-plan, nothing-is-impossible younger version of herself. Alter Ego comes up with the idea of starting a blog called Alles wat Mal is (Everything Crazy), documenting Helena’s hectic life, and her quest to win back Gustav’s affection, and put a spark back into her marriage.

Timid, wildly imaginative 13-year-old Gideonette de La Rey learns that the name she was given comes with it a horrible curse. After her father dies, Gideonette is paralyzed by fear and is sent to live on a farm in the forest with her grandparents where she befriends a young deaf boy who is “training” to become an astronaut and preparing to fly away in a Moonship that Gideonette’s grandfather had built.

The self-appointed woman representative, Grace, wants nothing but the truth. After moving in with her unemployed boyfriend in her house and providing him with all his daily needs, she hopes she is building her future husband. When she catches him cheating she feels betrayed and heartbroken. She then goes out for drinks to de-stress. Grace meets Thabo who is a player. Grace finds out that Thabo has a partner after a night of passion and loses it over the fact that Thabo lied to her. Thabo's lies lead him to being kidnapped and he cannot leave until he understands Grace's anger. Will he escape and go back to his partner? Will Grace face the consequences of her actions?

Two laundromat workers party in their clients' clothes, but during one night they discover a finger in a mysterious client's jacket.

Southern Africa, 1880. A mixed-race woman living in the arid Karoo takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own. Nine years later, he is forced to live in the Knysna Forest with a group of woodcutters that claim to be his family.

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.

Mariam comes from Fana, a town nearby the Malian capital. At 5, she was sexually abused by a family acquaintance, raped by her cousin at 13 and by her brother-in-law at 16. Today, she deals with her traumas through dance.

By sending in their best “Selfie”, 12 Lucky winners are chosen to spend the weekend with TV star Adele on the cruise of a lifetime. Up-for-grabs is a retirement unit with a value of R7 million! The women compete in survivor-like games and quizzes to win the exclusive prize.

The story of Anna, a teacher who through an error in judgement loses everything that matters to her in life. In her heartache she finds a job at a farm school called Uitvlucht in the Eastern Cape. As she is confronted with the choices she made in her life she slowly starts experiencing healing and restoration and learns to forgive herself. She starts accepting her circumstances and the fact that someone will love her again. With the support of the teachers and Dok, a kind hearted and friendly farmer, who visits the school and make friends with Anna, she finds the courage to re-build herself and others around her. Besides her own drama, she must also suddenly deal with the alcohol abuse of school parents, molestation and ruthless people who have no respect for their own lives.

Two patients in a psychiatric hospital are expecting another routine day, until one of them receives an envelope in the post from the past, that could change their future forever.

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.

Two close friends from film school, Tom and Vongani share an apartment in Maboneng Johannesburg with a sexy high spirited girl, Loretta. Tom is looking for inspiration for his first film script, when a heist takes place in the street below, and a gunman bursts into their apartment. They are taken hostage, but things quickly go wrong and the gunman dies by his own gun. The three friends' lives are turned upside down, when they discover a backpack containing money and a memory stick that every badass in town seems to be after.

Suma-Lee is a divorced single mom who is already struggling when she loses her job as a fashion designer and on top of that hears her slimy ex-husband is getting hitched again – with a model. Overwhelmed by anger, she reluctantly starts taking boxing lessons and finds herself stumbling into new love. She falls hard for Clive, her boxing coach, but his life is just as messy as hers. They have to decide: flee or fight for love?

The in-laws head to Mauritius for the birth of their grandchild and stir up comic trouble.

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 senior living facility is the home of one special family who holds the key to immortality among its elderly residents. Their younger, abusive employees are now the ones living on Borrowed Time.

Freedom (inspired by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment) is set in contemporary Johannesburg against the #FeesMustFall student movement. It explores the paradoxical, often limited, notion of "freedom" for born-free South African youth, focusing on the harsh realities of post-apartheid life.

A girl gifted at mathematics has her want for education suppressed by an overbearing father, he expects her to heard goats and sees no value to learning. Her journey to self empowerment

The journalist Aluta finds herself unfolding a government conspiracy involving her father figure Frank Drake, a corrupt mine magnate.

An orphaned and accomplished cardiologist, Dr. Khanyaqhawe Mabuyakhulu is challenged when she has found out she has to operate on Bheki, a man that killed her mother.

James is an actor with a failed career. When he is offered an opportunity to earn a little extra by performing as a drag queen at a club, he accepts. His wife finds out and a row is unavoidable. James is ready to do anything to save his marriage, to prove that the role he has been entrusted with at the club is perfectly honourable and he is in high regard. He also has to apply his best acting skills when an investigation into the suspicious murder of the club’s diva is opened.

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.

A new arrival to a mental institute is ostracised by the other patients, until they use him as a scapegoat when another patient dies.

Two broke but sassy real estate agent sisters, aspire to move from selling run-down apartments in shoddy parts of Pretoria to selling high-end suburban homes in Waterkloof Ridge. When they’re finally approached to sell an exclusive mansion, things start looking up, but when they stumble upon a dead body and a drug syndicate, they must keep their wits about them while trying to make their biggest sale.

Vincent “Vince” Mafila, a gardener is his late 50s, He buried his dreams and settled for a quiet life. Vince firmly believes that being a “good” person equates getting all good things in life. That belief is proven wrong when he is diagnosed with cancer and probably has a month to live. Now he is haunted by his past and trapped by regrets for not living his truth. Each week he consults a therapist to help him face his sudden reality. Instead of opening up he chooses to sleep for the entire session and dream of what his life could have been.

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.

JACK SHANNYN (Justin Strydom), a disgraced former cricket captain has been banned from the game for match fixing, with almost nothing to his name, no job or a place to stay and debts looming over his head. Eventually he finds a job at a school in a small coastal town teaching a bunch of misfit kids how to play cricket. We are first introduced to Ricky, the new kid, who has been expelled from schools because of his short temper. Ricky tries to stay out of trouble but with his newfound friends he lands up in the Principles office more once. As punishment the boys are forced to play cricket after school with Mr Shannyn, who finds it disgraceful that his game of cricket is nothing more than detention.