South African film often centers on the apartheid struggle or modern South African living. Here are a few movies I watched in preparation for our trip:
Yesterday 4.7/5 Stars
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 4.6/5 Stars
Invictus 4.3/5 Stars
Skin 4.3/5 Stars
The God’s Must Be Crazy 4.3/5 Stars
Other highly recommended movies include:
Cry the Beloved Country (Based on the novel Alan Paton)
District 9 (Science Fiction)
Blood Diamonds (Drama centered on the African diamond trade)
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Classic opera Carmen set in modern South Africa)
Tsotsi (Highly acclaimed film about gang violence in Johannesburg)
Life, Above All (A young girl is ostracized from her community)
The Bang Bang Club (Based on the true story of 4 photojournalists who enter the townships during apartheid)
Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema (Criminal violence drama in Johannesburg)
Paljas (Afrikaaner language film about a rural community)
Otelo Burning (Zulu language film about a surfer whose brother is killed)
Yesterday (Film in Zulu about a mother in a small village who discovers she has AIDS)
Cry Freedom (Set in apartheid South Africa about a liberal journalist)
Sarafina! (The film centers on the Soweto Riots, starring Whoopi Goldberg)
Red Dust 2004 (An American lawyer returns to her childhood home of South Africa during Truth and Reconciliation)
A Dry White Season (Based on the novel by André Brink)
A Reasonable Man (A boy in rural South Africa accused of murdering an infant)
Come Back, Africa (A Black farmer during apartheid leaves the countryside for the city)
Disgrace (Based on the book by J.M. Coetzee)
The Power Of One (Based on the book by Bryce Courtenay)
Max and Mona (A South African villager makes his way to Johannesburg to become a doctor)
Stander (South African police officer robs banks on the side)
In My Country – (Based on the memoir Country of My Skull)
For movies filmed in South Africa, see also:
https://www.travelground.com/blog/20-films-shot-south-africa
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