Moffie

'Moffie' is one of those films where a boy joins the military, goes through the random humiliations of basic training and Becomes A Man.

Conscripted into the South African military during the dying days of the apartheid era, Nick Van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) arrives at a training camp run by sadistic officers whose vocabulary appears to consist mainly of the word 'f***' (with an occasional 'c***' tossed in for variety). The next several months feature route marches, bullying in the barracks and the eating of vomit. There is also a tentative, platonic homosexual relationship with fellow recruit Stassen (Ryan de Villiers) - very dangerous as homosexuality is illegal. And always in the future lurks a posting to fight communist rebels on the border with Angola.

While the basic premise is not, of course, new, what makes this film different are the South African setting and the homosexual element (which, contrary to some publicity, is merely a part of the story rather than being the whole). As Nick, Brummer is a heartthrob in the making and I also found Matthew Vey, who plays Nick's cynical friend Michael, appealing. Hilton Pelser as the sergeant must have needed throat sweets to cope with all the bellowing he is required to do, but is also given a moment of awkward vulnerabilty. It might, perhaps, have been nice if de Villiers was given more to play with as regards his character; for such a pivotal role Stassen is curiously one-note, reduced pretty much to noble suffering. But that is not a major difficulty; this film is well worth watching. Seen at the London Film Festival 2019.

I'd read the book which is atmospheric and weirdly compelling, if also slight and ultimately unsatisfying. But books with sparse narratives often make the best films (eg. Bridges of Madison County) so I was ready to give Moffie another go. The film is also atmospheric and offers some confronting insights into the apartheid years and South African army culture. Beyond that, it is less compelling than the book, and even more unsatisfying. There's a fatal lack of narrative drive and no real attempt to flesh out key characters - acutely observed in the book, but only roughly sketched in the film. Our guide through two years of national service is Nicholas van der Swart, a sensitive young man, struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality and experiencing the first pangs of serious attraction. In the novel both his inner and outward struggle is moving and eventually devastating. But on film Nicholas appears frustratingly passive and considerably less heroic. Kai Luke Brummer makes an attractive Nick, but the role is almost entirely reactive, which makes for a somewhat lame hero. Perhaps Moffie is the film that that book deserved - faithful and true. But it still feels like a missed opportunity.

This South African film would appear to tread a well-worn path; and it's certainly true that the military training (and also war itself) is hell genre is one that can often feel over-familiar. Many of the tropes we know well are there, but this stands out for a couple of reasons. Telling the story of the white male experience of conscription in apartheid South Africa is an under-explored context in cinema; and to do so from a South African, coloured director makes this all the more striking. Also served by a disciplined running-time, the film manages to examine a particularly (Afrikaans) brand of white South African toxic masculinity with an unflinching but compassionate eye. That the legacy of this still haunts South Africans of all ages and races makes this all the more important. The title is an Afrikaans slang word used to offensively denigrate gay people, and it's this territory that the film specifically deals with; it's often a hard watch, but never relentlessly so and never excessive. Though it is very much rooted in the local context, it will work well for viewers no matter their nationality. This film suffered from an abbreviated cinema release due to lockdown, and deserves a wider audience.

Moffie is an Afrikaan slang word for being Gay. Throughout this film and especially during the atrociously brutal army training it is used along with many other anti-Gay words, and the numbing repetition of the damning words are meant to brainwash the new army recruits. Those who commit homosexual acts are ' sent away ' and are brutalised: one having endured so much under this torture blows his brains out in front of a group of soldiers. Each country has its hushed up and taboo issues and no doubt South Africa would no doubt not have entirely agreed with this brave and extraordinary film. I can also understand why certain Gay/Queer people would be unhappy that the homosexuality was toned down, but then I am not. The few scenes of intimacy are heartbreakingly tender and the most one sees is a tentative kiss on the mouth. This is enough in a film that shows how all tenderness between men is punched, hit, and inwardly murdered out of them. This is a War film that has little heroics and if some of the directors and actors of the spate of War films in the 1950's/60's could see this masterpiece they would probably shudder away from it. I will not give away spoilers about the War scenes but only mention that one killing of one ' enemy ' burnt itself into my brain. This was no hero stuff, but an authorized murder, and the ' killer ' looks numbly down at what he has done and the dying man in his agonizing last breaths stares up at him, telling us more about War than any other film I have seen. Only a great and sensitive director could have shown the inward horrors of War so clearly, but not emphatically. In the same way the lack of emphasis rather than the sexually explicit showing of homosexuality. Overall it is a heart breaking film about what men are forced to do. The ending for me was desolate, but then what else should I have felt ? The fatal word ' Moffie ' destroys in so many ways. As for the acting it was perfect. An Oscar contender ? I sadly doubt it.

Reading many of the reviews here, I can't help feel that many have misunderstood the point of the film.

This film is not an exploration into apartheid times, nor the war. It's also not thematic around homosexuality.

Instead, the film is a reflection on masculinity and herd mentality. Of three sensitive men, forced to join the army and having to come to terms with their new environment.

I've avoided spoilers in this review, deliberately. However I would say many reviewers here seem to like conclusive endings, or happy endings. This film will not give you that.

This film will take you on a journey of aggression, submission, romance and friendship.

A wonderful film.