South African cinéma like all cinéma comes in different shapes and sizes, so it was pretty tough to come up with ten films that can cater for almost everyone and expose them to the uniqueness of South African life. For this recommendations list, we came up with some pretty awesome South African films that are sure to get you engaged with South African film and hey if you get hooked on South African cinéma you're welcome!
An ageing, womanizing professional boxer and his career-criminal brother take one last shot at success and get more than they’ve bargained for.
South Africa, Free State region, isolated stronghold to the Afrikaans white ethnic minority culture. In this conservative farming territory obsessed with strength and masculinity, Janno is different, secretive, and emotionally frail. One day his mother, fiercely religious, brings home Pieter, a hardened street orphan she wants to save, and asks Janno to make this stranger into his brother. The two boys start a fight for power, heritage, and parental love.
A group of young friends on a camping trip, deep in the South African countryside wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies.
Matwetwe (Wizard) is a coming-of-age adventure following Lefa and Papi, best friends and recent high school graduates, on the hustle of their young lives. Over the course of one action-packed New Year’s Eve in the iconic township of Atteridgeville, the boys try to score a huge deal, dodge a kingpin gangster and his violent minions, get the girl, and ultimately save their lives in this hilarious and sometimes very serious escapade.
An ageing matriarch aims to bring together her fractured, dysfunctional family over Eid-al-Fitr to break the news about her new romance.
Two misfits need each other to help them fit in. She needs his driving school skills to get a driver's licence, whereas he needs her to transform into a roughneck to win back his ex, who dumped him for being too soft.
A park ranger takes shelter with two survivalists after an attack by mysterious creatures in a primordial forest.
Max Bua leaves his country life behind in hopes of becoming a doctor in Johannesburg, though the big city has different plans for him.
François van Heerden, a mid-40s Afrikaans family man, has become devoid of any care or concern for his own measure of happiness, and so convinced of his ill-fated existence, that he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean, controlled life.
Eastern Cape, South Africa. A lonely factory worker, Xolani, takes time off his job to assist during an annual Xhosa circumcision initiation into manhood. In a remote mountain camp that is off limits to women, young men, painted in white ochre, recuperate as they learn the masculine codes of their culture. In this environment of machismo and aggression, Xolani cares for a defiant initiate from Johannesburg, Kwanda, who quickly learns Xolani’s best-kept secret, that he is in love with another man.