Letâs begin by letting South African director Oliver Hermanus deconstruct the title, âMoffie.â
âOur title is a derogatory Afrikaans term for âgayâ,â he said in a press interview. âIt is a South African weapon of shame, used to oppress gay or effeminate men. When you are called this word for the first time, you hide from it. You edit yourself. It is when you first pretend you are someone else. The realization that you are visible is instant. All you know about that word is that it means you are bad. You are rejectable and unacceptable and during Apartheid, just like a black woman or man, you were a crime. And so, you needed to put it away, you needed to cover it up, kill itâthe moffie inside you. This is a film about how white South African men have been made for nearly a century.â
They’re worlds connoting dreams. Or, more likely, nightmares.
These imagined places are the setting for scenes that most regard as dark, disturbing, unsettling; they’re macabre, uncanny, potentially frightening. Funny, too, although you might hold your laughter in certain company. Unavoidable to notice is the bleakness, the despair, the uncomfortable weirdness that pervades his photographs and videos, too.
Immersed, 2016; Photographs Roger Ballen
Photographs Roger Ballen
Photographs Roger Ballen
All these feelings are rooted in actuality, inspired by people encountered and places explored. “It’s not just a fantasy trip that I’ve had over the years,” he says, “but real experiences with real people in difficult places, violent places, chaotic places, places on the margin that left a deep impact on me.”
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