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