Direction: Oliver Hermanus
Country: South Africa / UK
Moffie is a pejorative Afrikaans term for gay. This closely observed drama film is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by South African Andre Carl van der Merwe, and pulses with some honesty. However, it struggles to preserve both the focus and the narrative fluidity, ending up being more informative than entertaining.
The year is 1981, and the young Nicholas Van Der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) is ready for the compulsory military service of the Apartheid regime. The austere program, which takes place at the belligerent Angolan border, not only toughens their hearts through physical and psychological abuses, but also makes them learn to hate black men, fight the spreading of communism and condemn same-sex relationships. They are also told to forget who they are, which is a big problem for Nicholas, who, being homosexual, can’t really run counter his true nature.
At the training camp, he instantly befriends the self-assured Michael Sachs (Matthew Vey), but it’s the carefree Dylan Stassen (Ryan de Villiers) who steals his heart one night in the trenches. Combating his most intimate desires, Nicholas tries to avoid the humiliation and punishment that an ‘illegal’ relationship puts him through.
The director and co-writer Oliver Hermanus makes an effort to push things into a sensitive corner but rarely the film goes there because every aspect surrounding the story is cold and unfeeling. Suicide is frequent among the soldiers, the military training is exhaustingly repetitive, and even a flashback to a traumatic episode in Nicholas’ adolescence feel so lugubrious that I almost wanted the film to end.
The young Brummer delivers a top-drawer performance, giving the character the reserved posture, emotional complexity and subdued charm that allows us to connect. Thus, whatever didn’t work here, it wasn't his fault.
