''Moffie'' is a 2019

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

romantic drama Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

film co-written and directed by

Oliver Hermanus Oliver Hermanus (; born 26 May 1983) is a South African film director and writer.
"Oliver Hermanus." IMDb: The Internet Movie D ...

. Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by

André Carl van der Merwe André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as well in Portugal, ...

, the film depicts

mandatory conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

into the notorious

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

(SADF) during

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

through the eyes of a young closeted character Nicholas van der Swart (

Kai Luke Brümmer Kai Luke Brümmer (also stylised as Brummer; born 17 February 1993) is a South African actor. He is known for his role as Nicholas van der Swart in the film ''Moffie'' (2019). ''The Guardian'' named him one of the best new-and-up-comers at the 7 ...

) as he attempts to hide his attraction to another gay recruit ( Ryan de Villiers) in a hostile environment. The title derives from a homophobic slur in South Africa used to police masculinity. The film had its world premiere release at the

Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

on 4 September 2019. It also had its special screenings at other film festivals and received a number of accolades in various categories. Its original 2020 theatrical release was disrupted by the Covid 19 pandemic. Distributed by

Curzon Cinemas Curzon Cinemas Limited () is a chain of movie theater, cinemas based in the United Kingdom, mostly in London, specialising in Art films, art house films. They also have a video on demand service, Curzon Home Cinema. History Curzon Cinemas were ...

in the UK and

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

in the US, it was made available to stream and released in select cinemas in 2021.

Synopsis

The film begins in 1981, with South Africa's white minority government embroiled in a brutal

proxy conflict Proxy may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Proxy, a mysterious humanoid lifeform in the anime ''Ergo Proxy'' * PROXY, a holodroid featured in ''Star Wars: The Force Unleashed'' * Proxy, the codename of Wendy, Marvin ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. A shy teenager, Nicholas van der Swart, like all white South African males over 16, is forced to undergo two years of compulsory military service in the SADF. He keeps his head down whilst the sadistic sergeants brutalise and train the recruits to hate and kill, policing their every move. The threat of shame, abuse, and worse looms over any who fail to conform to an ideal of Afrikaner

hypermasculinity Hypermasculinity is a psychological and sociological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and human male sexuality. In the field of clinical psychology, this term has be ...

. There are details that set Nicholas apart: that, despite his Afrikaans surname from his stepfather, he is English-speaking; and as he finds quiet solidarity in and connection with another recruit Dylan Stassen, that he is gay, the latter of which is a punishable crime and could land him in the ominous Ward 22 if he were found out.

Cast

as Nicholas van der Swart ** Matt Ashwell as young Nicholas * Ryan de Villiers as Dylan Stassen * Matthew Vey as Michael Sachs * Stefan Vermaak as Oscar Fourie *

Hilton Pelser Hilton Pelser is a South African actor. He is known for his roles in the Starz series '' Dangerous Liaisons'' (2022) and the ''Kissing Booth'' trilogy, as well as the films '' Moffie'' (2019) and '' Glasshouse'' (2021). Early life and educati ...

as Sergeant Brand * Wynand Ferreira as Niels Snyman * Hendrick Nieuwoudt as Roos * Nicholas van Jaarsveldt as Robert Fields * Jordy Gurr as Albert Williams

Production

The film is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by André Carl van der Merwe, which the author based on his own diary entries from his time in the SADF. It tells the story of Nicholas discovering his sexuality in a dangerous context, and the irony and trauma of being forced to defend a regime that oppresses him and an ideology he does not agree with. Eric Abraham and Jack Sidey bought the rights and approached Oliver Hermanus with the adaptation. Hermanus, whose family were affected by Apartheid, was initially skeptical of the white focus of the film, but found the memoir eye-opening and saw its potential to challenge. A few drafts later, he got to work on the script himself, widening the scope to examine the hate politics and toxic white masculinity that Apartheid tried to indoctrinate into a generation of men, both agents and property of the state, using Nicholas as a point of view. Sidey and Hermanus were able to take liberties with the source material and narrative structure. Windmill panorama 1

Jaci Cheriman hosted a nationwide casting call over the course of a year, scouting from professional agencies to local schools and drama clubs. The cast underwent bootcamp training with a military adviser. The crew worked with actors to develop the characters, incorporating stories from real-life veterans. The film was shot in

academy ratio The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 (abbreviated as 1.37:1) is an aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio of a film frame, frame of 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film when used with negative pulldown, 4-perf pulldown.Monaco, James. ''How to Read a Film: The A ...

and colour graded to resemble the photography of the time. Principal photography took place in early 2019 across the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

. The crew scouted period-appropriate sites. Filming locations included

Saron SARON stands for Swiss Average Rate Overnight and is a measurement of the overnight interest rate of the secured funding market denominated in Swiss Franc (CHF). It is based on transactions and quotes posted in the Swiss repo market, and is ad ...

, Hopefield, and

Grabouw Grabouw ( , ) is a town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Grabouw is located some 65 km south-east of Cape Town, over Sir Lowry's Pass from Somerset West, along the N2 (South Africa), N2 highway. The town is the commercia ...

. The ending scene was filmed on Windmill Beach in

Simon's Town Simon's Town (), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern s ...

. As it took time to procure 80s train cars, the train scenes were filmed last in the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

between Caledon and

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, of critic reviews are positive, with an average rating of . The website's critic consensus reads: "''Moffie'' uses one South African soldier's story to grapple against a series of thorny questions – with rough yet rewarding results." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film holds a score of 69 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. The film was nominated for the Best Film category at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

2019. It received two nominations at the

2019 Venice Film Festival The 76th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 28 August to 7 September 2019, at Venice Lido in Italy. Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel was the jury president for the main competition. Alessandra Mastronardi hosted the ...

, for the Queer Lion Award and Venice Horizons Award. The ''

Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' ranked the film to be among the best of 2021 so far as to early July 2021.

Accolades

Adaptations

''Moffie'' was also imagined as a dance work in 2012 by Standard Bank Young Artist Award recipient Bailey Snyman. Snyman's version premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2012 to critical and acclaimed reception. The dance version was also performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg in August 2012 and at the State Theatre in Pretoria in December 2012. The work was revived for performances at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town in January 2015. In June 2024, a stage monologue of ''Moffie'', adapted by Philip Rademeyer and presented by the

Fugard Theatre The District Six Homecoming Center, formerly the Fugard Theater, is a small theater in Cape Town, South Africa. It was opened in the District Six suburb in February 2010. The theater closed in March 2021 and was handed over to the District Six Mu ...

Archive, premiered at Riverside Studios in West London, with

reprising the lead role.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2019 films 2019 biographical drama films 2019 LGBTQ-related films 2019 war drama films Afrikaans-language films Apartheid films English-language South African films Films directed by Oliver Hermanus Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films set in 1981 Films set in 1982 Films set in 1983 Films shot in the Western Cape LGBTQ and military-related mass media 2010s LGBTQ-related drama films South African biographical drama films South African Border War films South African LGBTQ-related films South African war drama films 2010s English-language films Films scored by Braam du Toit English-language biographical drama films English-language war drama films 2010s South African films