From a South African Slur to a Scathing Drama About Toxic Masculinity
The new film “Moffie” examines the brainwashing of a generation of white men in the twilight of the apartheid regime.
Oliver Hermanus, the “Moffie” director, said the drama is “really about shame and indoctrination.”Credit...Alexander Coggin for The New York Times
April 7, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
“Mo-FFIES!” chant the soldiers, precisely lined up under a baking sun, as a screaming sergeant reviles two men reported to be lovers. “Mo-ffies! Mo-ffies! Mo-ffies!”
The word is a homophobic slur in Afrikaans, and the scene comes about 30 minutes into Oliver Hermanus’s new film, “Moffie.” It depicts South Africa in the early 1980s, when the country’s white government saw threats from the communists at the border, terrorists at home and the anti-apartheid movement worldwide. Every white man over 16 had to do two years of military service, and “Moffie” suggests the story of a generation through the shy recruit Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer). He endures the brutal basic training designed to brainwash the young men into a paranoid, aggressive defense of the apartheid regime, and is sent to fight on the border, while quietly experiencing an awakening of sexual identity in the worst possible context.