30 Years of Democracy in South Africa is Highlighted in the Mostra de Cinemas Africanos 2024

Created in partnership with the Durban International Film Festival, a selection of South African films reflects on the legacy of apartheid and possible futures for South Africa. Filmmaker Naledi Bogacwi will be present with her film Banned.

The end of apartheid marked a historic moment in South Africa, ending decades of institutionalized racial segregation. The regime, imposed by the National Party in 1948, legalized discrimination against the black population, restricting their rights and maintaining white supremacy. In April 1994, the first multiracial and democratic elections were held, allowing all South Africans, regardless of race, to vote. Nelson Mandela, leader of the anti-apartheid movement and the African National Congress (ANC), was elected president, symbolizing the hope for a new era of equality and reconciliation.

Marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of democracy in South Africa, the Mostra de Cinemas Africanos, in partnership with the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), is promoting a special film programme that debates the traumas, controversies, and aftermath of apartheid in contemporary South Africa. Curated by Marcelo Esteves, a screenwriter and researcher in the cinemas of southern Africa, the selection includes four feature-length documentaries offering different perspectives on the impact of apartheid on the lives of South Africans and three fiction short films that address the theme more subtly. All films are directed by South African filmmakers and are making their Brazilian debut.

Filmmaker Naledi Bogacwi will visit Brazil to present her documentary Banned, which recalls the trajectory of the action feature film Joe Bullet (1973), the first South African film to be produced with an all-black African cast. Andrea Voges, DIFF's programme director, will also be present at the festival and will follow the programme of South African films and discussions on 30 years of freedom in South Africa.  

The programme also includes the debate session “Três Décadas de Liberdade: o cinema sul-africano em perspectiva” (Three Decades of Freedom: South African cinema in perspective, in a free translation), which will be held at the Sesc São Paulo’s Centro de Pesquisa e Formação. Featuring filmmaker Naledi Bogacwi, known for films addressing violence in apartheid-divided South Africa, and USP historian and professor Laura Moutinho, a researcher of contemporary South African history, the event will focus on cinema and history as tools for producing memory. These narratives aim to make sense of a segregational regime that lasted nearly 50 years, producing violence that still impacts life experiences in South Africa, even 30 years after its end.

Feature Films Programme

Banned recalls the trajectory of the action feature film Joe Bullet, the first South African film to be produced with an all-black African cast. In 1973, under apartheid, the film was shown only twice in Soweto before being immediately banned by the regime. Through interviews with professionals involved in the production, the documentary uses the film's banning as a starting point to recover the history of racial segregation perpetrated by the apartheid regime. Marcelo Esteves notes that the film is "very well made, both technically and in the way the testimonies are conducted, finding a very original way to revisit the apartheid theme through its implications for the South African audiovisual industry.” Director Naledi Bogacwi will attend the festival to present the film and debate with the audience.

Don't Be Late for My Funeral is a biographical documentary exploring the affectionate ties between Diane (57), the white South African director, and Margaret Bogopa Matlala (80), her former black nanny, who worked as a domestic worker for three generations of the director's family. The film, whose narrative begins with the friendship established in the past between Margaret and the director's deceased mother, shows Margaret's central role in Diane's and her family's life, as well as in Margaret's own family and the rural community to which she returned after retirement. In the background are interracial relationships first criminalized under apartheid and later problematized in a democratically free South Africa. The curator states that "although the film does not avoid addressing the issue of racial segregation in the South African context objectively, its focus is on the 'daring' to talk about affection and friendship – which are eventually built and cross the relationships between black nannies and the white children they care for – at a time when we are very determined to consider only the oppressive, nefarious, and racist side of these relationships."

London Recruits, on the other hand, is a historical documentary built through interviews, Super 8 archive footage, and dramatic reenactments. The film recovers a little-known episode of the South Africans' fight against apartheid: the recruitment of young British activists – carried out in the 1970s by ANC member Oliver Tambo – whose mission was to enter South Africa as tourists to perform acts against the segregational regime to keep alive the fight for freedom among the South African people. The director uses classic principles of fictional thriller narrative, with much suspense and plot twists, which bring the film closer to mainstream narrative but in no way diminishes its documentary value. Marcelo Esteves observes that "there is also the care, verbalized in some passages, not to steal the protagonism of black South Africans in the fight against apartheid."  

Lastly, Legacy: The De-Colonised History of South Africa also addresses the apartheid theme, seeking to connect the enormous social inequality and systemic racism that plagues present-day South Africa to its historical roots in racial segregation. The documentary stands out for investigating, without flinching, how ethnic groups with historical privileges (Afrikaans and English-speaking whites) relate to the country's present and its traumatic past. According to the curator, "one of the film's strong points is undoubtedly the testimony of historical trauma researcher Wilhelm Verwoerd – grandson of Hendrik Verwoerd, known as the architect of apartheid." 

Short Films Programme

In this selection, curator Marcelo Esteves favored fiction films since the feature films are all documentaries. Fictional narratives in this programme enrich the thematic and visual repertoire about South Africa by depicting the working and middle classes intertwined, reflecting on the apartheid legacy in the daily lives of South Africans.

Keba, Interrupted explores a fragment of a young adult's life – an absent father who has just lost his mother – trying to find his place in the world. The short film's narrative proposes "to show life as it is lived in the real world – without conclusion, loose ends, lessons not learned, without narrative closure." The film is quite clever in leading us to prejudge the protagonist's social position at the beginning, only to confront us with our own prejudices. 

In The Wait, a man faces the indifference of the bureaucratic system and of a group of citizens while trying to help an elderly man waiting for service at a police station. The film, described by the director as an "allegory of South Africa's complex society," provides not only a reflection on individualism but also addresses themes such as respect for the elderly, state bureaucracy, and resilience.

All films are rated PG-14 unless otherwise stated.

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About the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF)

The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), organized by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is one of Africa's most important film festivals. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest and largest event of its kind in southern Africa, screening over a hundred films, all premieres in the region. In addition to screenings, the festival promotes workshops, seminars, and outreach activities, including sessions in peripheral areas without access to cinemas. DIFF is the only festival in southern Africa that qualifies films for the Oscars in the Best Documentary and Best Short Film categories, being one of four festivals on the continent with this qualification. The 45th edition of DIFF took place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, from July 18 to 28. Since 2023, DIFF has maintained a partnership with the Mostra de Cinemas Africanos, promoting professional exchanges between Brazilian and South African filmmakers and joint curation of films from both countries.

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The Mostra de Cinemas Africanos in Salvador-Bahia has financial support from the State Government, through the Fundo de Cultura, the Treasury Department, and the Secretary of Culture of Bahia.