Moffie review: The hell of being gay in apartheid-era army latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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
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.