Review: South African Queer War Drama ‘Moffie’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 There is a traditional image of military might that emphasizes strength above all else, to the detriment of individualism and often humanity. We’ve seen this portrayed many times in disturbing fashion in movies and television (not to mention real life), as drill sergeants and other commanding officers work to crush the spirits of their charges and “toughen” them up so that their weaknesses will be rooted out. This can obviously have truly scarring effects, felt both during and after service. A powerful showcase of that phenomenon is on display in director Oliver Hermanus’ new film Moffie, opening Friday.

In the same way that Confederate battalions aren’t fondly remembered in America, white men who fought for South Africa in the 1980s aren’t really on the right side of history...

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9 Foreign Film Finalists for the Oscar Race

by Nathaniel R

"The Wound" from South Africa might be the biggest surprise on the finalist list.The Academy's foreign film nominating committees have whittled down the 92 contenders to 9. If you've forgotten or never heard the procedure it involves multiple volunteers watching a certain number of entries to be eliglble to vote on them. The top six films advance from those ballots and the executive committee chooses another three which makes the 9 finalists. Then a final committee watches the nine finalists and votes to determine the five nominations. We correctly predicted 7 of the 9 finalist (you can peak here though we'll be updating that chart to reflect the official standings shortly)

A Fantastic Woman directed by Sebastián Lelio for Chile
In the Fade directed by Fatih Akin for Germany
On Body and Soul Ildikó Enyedi for Hungary
Foxtrot directed by Samuel Maoz for Israel
The Insult directed by Ziad Doueiri for Lebanon
Loveless directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev for Russia
Félicité directed by Alain Gomis for Senegal
The Wound directed by John Trengove for South Africa
The Square directed by Ruben Östlund for Sweden MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

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Trailer for South African Historic Drama "Krotoa"

Robert here! Nothing excites me more than when a movie that is not from one of the juggernaut film producing countries (the US, UK, France, South Korea, etc.) causes a commotion on the international scene. Today we have a trailer for an upcoming South African historic drama Krotoa, which tells the true story of a Khoi woman who became an influential translator during the founding of the Cape Colony. The film has been making waves on the festival circuit, and now we have a trailer. It's below and more info after the jump:

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