Five South African movies about freedom you have to watch this Freedom Day
During Freedom Day, you have the freedom to watch any movie you like. Have a look at these movies centered on the theme of freedom in South Africa.
If you’re bored on Freedom Day, here are a few films about freedom you definitely need to watch:
Invictus
Wikipedia states that Invictus is a 2009 American-South African biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation which is about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The Springboks were not expected to perform well, only recently returning to high level international competition following the dismantling of apartheid – the country was hosting the World Cup, thus earning an automatic entry. Freeman and Damon play, respectively, South African President Nelson Mandela and François Pienaar, the captain of the South Africa rugby union team, the Springboks. It’s a goosebumps- giving film about the period when South Africa transitioned to a democracy and it’s best to watch it with surround sound to capture the ambience of the erupting stadiums during the movie.
Watch the trailer here:
Tsotsi
Tsotsi is a 2005 film set in an Alexandra slum, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film tells the story of Tsotsi, a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. Tsotsi hastily strips the car of its valuables and takes the baby back to his shack. Pumla survives the attack and works with a police artist to create a composite sketch of Tsotsi’s face, which is then run in the newspapers.
Realising that he cannot properly care for the baby on his own, Tsotsi spots Miriam (Terry Pheto), with a young child strapped to her back, collecting water from a public tap. He follows her to her shack and forces her at gunpoint to feed the kidnapped child. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.
Watch the trailer here:
Sarafina!
Sarafina’s plot centres on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The character Sarafina (Leleti Khumalo) feels shame at her mother’s (Miriam Makeba) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household during the apartheid era in South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (Whoopi Goldberg) is imprisoned. In the opening scene, Sarafina is seen talking while staring at Nelson Mandela’s picture at a time when the South African icon was still imprisoned. In the latter scene Sarafina is again talking while staring at Mandela’s picture on the wall, criticising him for being gone for a long time and not responding to the nation’s pleas, idolising him as someone who can change the horrific situation that the Black nation of South Africa is in.
Watch the trailer here:
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 science fiction action horror film. The story, which explores themes of humanity, xenophobia, and social segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien ship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and malnourished insect-like aliens is found aboard the ship, the South African government confines them to an internment camp called District 9.
Watch the trailer here:
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 South African comedy film. Set in Botswana, it follows the story of Xi, a San from the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian San farmer N?xau ?Toma) whose tribe has no knowledge of the world beyond Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers), a biologist who analyses manure samples for his PhD dissertation, and Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo), a newly hired village school teacher.
Watch the movie trailer here:
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