Moffie has a big weekend coming up: producer Jack Sidey is nominated for an Outstanding Debut BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) and the critically acclaimed war movie is being released in the USA at select cinemas and streaming platforms by IFC Films.
Adapted from an autobiographical 2006 novel by André Carl van der Merwe, Moffie is set in South Africa, 1981, with the white minority government embroiled in a conflict on the southern Angolan border. Like all white boys over the age of 16, Nicholas Van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) must complete two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime. The threat of communism and die swart gevaar is at an all-time high. But that’s not the only danger Nicholas faces. He must survive the brutality of the army – something that becomes even more difficult when a connection is sparked between himself and a fellow soldier.
Since its premiere in Venice in 2019, Moffie has won the Mermaid Award at Thessaloniki and the Film Critics Special Jury Prize in Dublin. Variety said of the movie, “South African auteur Oliver Hermanus makes his masterpiece with this brutal but radiant story of young gay desire on the Angolan war front... establishing him quite plainly as South Africa’s most vital contemporary filmmaker… Both a shiver-delicate exploration of unspoken desire and a scarringly brilliant anatomy of white South African masculinity. It fair takes your breath away.”
Similarly, Sight and Sound called Moffie “thrillingly cinematic… Recalls the brutality of Full Metal Jacket crossed with the eroticism of Beau Travail,” while The Hollywood Reporter called it “mesmerizing.”
If you’ve yet to see it, here’s the trailer to whet your appetite :
This year's BAFTA's will be split across two days as the pandemic continues to impact red carpet events. Last year they were hosted by Graham Norton whose duties this time around are to be split between Dermot O’Leary, Edith Bowman, and Clara Amfo.
Amfo will be giving out eight awards on 10 April, and O’Leary and Bowman will do the rest the following night.
Best of luck to our SA team.
