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Oliver Hermanus’
Moffie opens with an uneasy send-off dinner, followed soon after by a veritable descent into hell. The setting is South Africa in 1981, and 18-year-old Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer), like all other white boys over 16, is being conscripted for military service and a tour on the Angolan border, ostensibly to fend off communist terrorists. After a snaking train passage shot through with mounting terror, he soon finds himself in the darkness of a boot camp, under the thumb of Sergeant Brand (Hilton Pelser), an all-too-believable sadist who takes perverse pleasure in whipping the conscripts into shape. Beyond the usual horrors and humiliations of basic training, Nicholas also has to deal with the fact that, despite his last name (inherited from his stepfather), he is English among predominantly Afrikaans peers, and therefore has to fend off their taunts as well as Brand’s. Add to all this his hinted-at homosexuality, and
Cary Darling April 5, 2021Updated: April 5, 2021, 11:30 am
Kai Luke Brummer as Nicholas in Oliver Hermanus’ “Moffie.” Photo: IFC Films
“Moffie,” a derogatory Afrikaans term for “gay,” is dismissive shorthand for everything that the young men in the harrowing film of the same name, from South African director Oliver Hermanus, don’t want to be. Set amid a group of freshly arrived white army conscripts who will be sent to fight communist guerrillas along the Angolan border in apartheid-era South Africa, it’s a riveting portrait of a particular time and place while also being a broader assault on the type of pressure-cooker masculinity where torture, cruelty, humiliation and racism are the coins of the realm.
Local queer war film Moffie bags a Bafta nomination
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Director Oliver Hermanusâs âMoffieâ has been nominated for a Bafta award in the category Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
The brutal but radiant 2019 film, co-written and produced by Briton Jack Sidey, will go up against other nominees including âHis Houseâ, âLimboâ, âRocksâ and âSaint Maudâ.
Hermanus took to Twitter to announce the news.
MOFFIE JUST BAGGED A BAFTA NOMINATION for @JackSidey ð¾ð¾ð¾ Oliver Hermanus (@OliverHermanus) March 9, 2021
Set in 1981 during apartheid, the powerful film explores homophobia.
In a time when the government is embroiled in a vicious war along the southern Angolan border, the film tells the story of Nicholas Van der Swart, played by Kai Luke Brummer.
Bafta 2021: SA s Moffie and My Octopus Teacher bags nominations thesouthafrican.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thesouthafrican.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Rocks, and
The Father lead this year’s nominations, with two women Chloé Zhao and Sarah Gavron nabbing seven nominations each. Four women total earned nods for directing compared to last year’s all-male directing nominees, and in a reversal from last year’s entirely white acting nominees, 16 of 2021 s 24 nominated actors are from underrepresented groups.
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Deadline, the changes come as the result of a seven-month review process (HFPA better be taking some copious notes), in which the organization evaluated its procedures and implemented some changes, “including the introduction of a long-list system in a bid to increase viewership of all the submitted films, and increasing all four acting categories and the best director category to six nominees.” A total of 50 films (up from last year’s 39) were nominated this year, and the changes additionally resulted in more first-time nominees than ever before: Four of the six directors nominated, as well as 21 of th