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Films to challenge and delight

The West Australian
Letter Reader, one of the many films screening online as part of the South African Film Festival 2021
Camera IconLetter Reader, one of the many films screening online as part of the South African Film Festival 2021 Credit: Supplied

All ticket proceeds from this year’s South African Film Festival (May 12-24, saff.org.au) will go to supporting Education without Borders programs that assist young South Africans in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities — of particular importance this year given the impact of COVID-19.

The 2021 SAFF will present an engaging program of nine documentaries, five features and two short films, screening online to audiences across Australia and New Zealand, with special closing night in-cinema screenings in Sydney and Melbourne.

The films reflect South Africa’s diverse population, rich tradition of struggle for democracy and equality, and complex political and economic reality.

“South Africa produces some of the richest stories for cinema the world over,” says Festival Director Claire Jankelson. “Much like the country itself, the films that come from South Africa are all at once challenging, bold, beautiful and heartwarming.

“This year’s line-up of films presents an exciting mix of daring narratives, striking cinematography and deep explorations into South African culture and community.”

The Festival films will once again premiere nationally throughout Australia and this year to viewers in New Zealand.

Feature films in the Festival line-up include South Africa’s moving Oscar submission Toorbos. Based on a novel by celebrated Afrikaans author Dalene Matthee, Toorbos documents a woman blossoming against the destruction of her environment. Riding with Sugar is a zany, action-packed film about a young refugee's quest for BMX glory and the pursuit of identity, safety, happiness and love.

Raw, confronting and emotionally charged, Tess is adapted from Tracey Farren’s award-winning novel Whiplash, and follows a 20-year-old prostitute and addict in Cape Town whose life is turned upside-down by an unexpected pregnancy. For Love and Broken Bones is an unexpectedly tender gangster flick featuring a jazz musician debt collector who falls in love with his latest assignment, a wedding planner.

Good Hope.
Camera IconGood Hope. Credit: Supplied

Four documentaries examine South Africa’s apartheid, its history and impacts on the future of the country. Blindside covers the 1974 boycott-breaking tour of South Africa by the British rugby team the Lions and how the sports boycott ultimately proved to be a powerful tool in helping to dismantle apartheid. Taking a sobering look at recent history, A New Country explores the aftermath of apartheid and a fractured contemporary society still battling its legacies. Winner of the Florence Film Award for Best Original Story, District Six is the film maker’s deeply personal account of her return to the ancestral community in Cape Town from which her family and thousands of others were forcibly removed during apartheid. Good Hope is a positive look at the future, exploring what the post –apartheid “Born Free” generation are doing to create a brighter future.

Other documentaries in the Festival include Jozi Gold which examines the dark heart of mining in South Africa; Influence, a revealing look at the immoral and weaponised influence that PR firm Bell Pottinger had in South Africa and the world; Mama Africa, which tracks the life of artist and activist Miriam Makeba, whose legendary singing became a passionate message of black liberation to the world; and SanDance, which captures the importance of dance to southern Africa’s oldest tribe, the San.

Two powerful shorts feature in the Festival line-up. Sides of a Horn uses a hybrid of dramatic and documentary styles to look at rhino poaching through two fictional antagonists, a ranger and a poacher, juxtaposing their points of view of a poaching incident that puts them both at risk. Letter Reader follows a twelve-year-old boy who becomes his village’s letter reader.

fact file

  • TheSouth African Film Festival 2021 screens online May 12-24.
  • Tickets are $8 single screening, $60 for full program (single person) and $80 more than one person.
  • The Festival program, tickets and the full line-up of films are available at saff.org.au

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