“It’s a coming-of-age movie that plays like a thriller…”
– New York Magazine
“The filmmaking is strong and confident throughout, while Mr. Brummer’s performance is a constant revelation.”
– Wall Street Journal
“It’s an usual perspective for an apartheid film, something the director – who is gay and mixed race – has acknowledged initially recoiling from. But that point-of-view only makes Hermanus’ mission all the more laudable.”
– Associated Press
“This is a gentle beauty of a film with impressive work from a young cast.”
– San Jose Mercury News
“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.”
– Houston Chronicle
“The film lifts the lid on same-sex desire just enough to stir the pot but refuses to indulge in any unrealistic wish fulfillment when depicting a time when discovered transgressions provoked the most extreme consequences.”
– Deadline Hollywood
“It does such a thought-through, empathetic, and powerful job of exploring homophobia as part of a root-and-branch mentality in South Africa’s white patriarchal psyche.”
– Daily Telegraph
“Both a shiver-delicate exploration of unspoken desire and a scarringly brilliant anatomy of white South African masculinity.”
– Variety
“It’s often tough to watch, but that harshness is mitigated by moments of aching tenderness and desire.”
– Hollywood Reporter
Moffie, the acclaimed new coming-of-age military drama from director Oliver Hermanus, is set year is 1981 – while South Africa’s white minority government is embroiled in a conflict on the southern Angolan border.
Like all white boys over the age of sixteen, Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) must complete two years of compulsory military service to defend the apartheid regime. The threats of communism, violence and racial discord are at an all-time high. But they are not the only dangers Nicholas faces. He must survive the brutality of the army – something that becomes even more difficult when a connection is sparked between him and a fellow recruit.
Watch the trailer for Moffie below and click here to order your copy. The film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray at TLAgay.