The Afrikaans Film Template

Feature films produced for the Afrikaans market in South Africa, have many distinctive characteristics, including that they're exclusively white.

A still from the Hollywood film, 'Out of Africa,' a colonial fantasy set mostly on a Kenyan farm.

The creatives at South African satellite TV channel Kyknet—which, more recently, also produces feature films—not only blatantly rip off American romantic comedy plotlines but inhabit a South Africa where not a single black face is to be seen. On the other hand, maybe they’re being honest.

Like for “Semi-Sweet.”

 

 

Further Reading

On the pitch

This year, instead of taking a publishing break, we will be covering the African Cup of Nations. To transition, we consider why football still matters in an era of enclosure, mediated presence, and thinning publics.