Moffie

Taking its title from insulting Afrikaans slang for a gay man, Oliver Hermanus's military drama exposes the myriad prejudices dividing apartheid South Africa. Arriving at boot camp in the 1980s before being dispatched to fight the border war with Angola, 18-year-old Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brümmer) is an outsider on several levels. But the friendships he develops with fellow recruits Matthew Vey and Ryan de Villiers make it possible for him to endure the bullying of Sergeant Brand (Hilton Pelser) and his fellow conscripts. The threat of humiliation is ever-present, though, and Hermanus uses tactile photography to stress the homoerotic temptations Nicholas faces, even during a volleyball game that mischievously references Top Gun (1986). Echoes of Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Beau Travail (1999) also abound in this adaptation of André Carl van der Merwe's autobiographical novel, as the brutality of the bigotry is unstintingly laid bare.