South African movies to watch now

You don’t have to travel far to find great stories. Here are the latest and best South African series and movies streaming on Showmax now – and what’s coming up. 

Meet Melusi | First on Showmax | Family drama

Directed by Black Brain Films co-founder Mandla N (2021 SAFTA winners Loving Thokoza and Lockdown), Meet Melusi went straight to the top of Showmax’s movies chart on its release and is currently in second place, sandwiched between the international blockbusters 007: No Time To Dieand Godzilla Vs Kong. It’s already getting five star reviews, with Daily Sun calling Meet Melusi a “touching but funny movie…” 

After losing everything when he’s accused of bribery, Aubrey discovers what fatherhood means when he’s introduced to a 16-year-old boy he is told is his illegitimate son. 

Four-time SAFTA winner and Monte-Carlo Golden Nymph nominee Mothusi Magano (Blood Psalms, The Lab, Emoyeni) stars as Aubrey, alongside triple SAFTA winner Linda Sebenzo (Gauteng Maboneng, Isibaya), SAFTA winner Kenneth Nkosi (Reyka, Five Fingers To Marseilles), award winner Nqobile ‘Nunu’ Khumalo (Nqobile, Scandal) and Lungile Radebe (DiepCity). 

Sons of the Sea | Drama movie

Sons of the Sea, named Best South African Film at the 2021 Durban International Film Festival, is set in a small fishing community on the outskirts of Cape Town. SAFTA Best Actor winner Roberto Kyle (Leeroy in Arendsvlei) stars as Gabriel, who discovers a dead body and two bags of valuable abalone. 

Sons of the Sea is the debut film from writer-director John Gutierrez, who edited the Grammy-winning Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream, as well as music videos for thelikes of Beyoncé. 

SAFTA winner Brendon Daniels (Skemerdans, Four Corners), Nicole Fortuin (Indemnity, Flatland) and newcomer Marlon Swarts co-star. 

Kaalgat Karel | Comedy movie

The third most popular movie at the South African box office in 2021, Kaalgat Karel follows a hapless streaker who must find a way to bare his soul rather than his backside in a bid to win the heart of a strait-laced single mom. 

The romcom stars Francois Jacobs (Vir die Voëls) and SAFTA nominee Christia Visser (Fynskif, Tess), alongside the likes of SAFTA-winning comedians Schalk Bezuidenhout (Kanarie, Hotel) and Siv Ngesi (Tali’s Baby Diary, Dam, Still Breathing). 

Kaalgat Karel is co-written and directed by Meg Rickards, with Paul Egan co-writing and producing. Rickards and Egan are the team behind the SAFTA-nominated film Tess and Durban International Film Festival Audience Award-winning documentary 1994: The Bloody Miracle. 

Down So Long | Comedy-drama

The Showmax film Down So Long stars four-time SAFTA winner Tshamano Sebe (8, Of Good Report, Stokvel) as Joseph Mabena, who lives with his wife, Doreen, his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren in an overcrowded, 20-person house in the Hangberg fishing community above Hout Bay in Cape Town.  

When he is injured in a workplace accident, Joseph is offered a substantial pay-out. His family suddenly rally round, professing their love in the hopes of getting their hands on the money, but Joseph vows not to part with a cent of his “hard-earned” cash.

Co-directed and co-produced by Angie Mills and Damir Radonic, Down So Long premiered at the 2022 Silwerskerm Film Festival, generating huge laughs and praise for the cast, who, apart from the two leads, were all drawn from the Hangberg community. 

Diane de Beer called the screening “enchanting,” adding, “The camera was used in observational fashion and those of us watching could get a real feel for the place. As entertaining as it was, it is also hugely educational, a true gift.”

For sports fans

Two Sides | Rugby documentary

From the creators of the multi-award-winning Chasing The Sun, Two Sides is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at last year’s historic British & Irish Lions series against the Springboks. As the British & Irish Lions tour only every four years, and rotate between Australia, New Zealand and SA, it’s a treasured opportunity for any Springbok player that only comes around every 12 years.

Against the backdrop of Covid-19, Two Sides looks at how the tour was rescued from the brink of cancellation, which would have been nothing short of a financial disaster for SA Rugby. From playing in front of an empty stadium to the leaked video of Rassie Erasmus that went viral, to complaints about referees, the series became an endless stream of drama. 

Two Sides not only takes us into the Springbok changing room, but also shows the British & Irish Lions up close, giving a palpable sense of the passion and sacrifice required for someone to don the famous red jersey. Travelling from Lukhanyo Am’s family in the Eastern Cape to the hometown of Liam Williams in South Wales, the series gives so many great personal stories from the players as well as their relatives that it truly tells both sides of the story.

When the series ended with a hard-fought South African victory, it became another moment of glory for a Springbok team that continues to make history. Two Sides really is a must-watch to give all fans a greater understanding of just how special their achievement was.

Moffie | Drama film

Moffie won the Film Critics Special Jury Prize at the 2020 Dublin International Film Festival and has a 100% critics rating from Rotten Tomatoes, with Variety raving, “South African auteur Oliver Hermanus makes his masterpiece with this brutal but radiant story of young gay desire on the Angolan war front… establishing him quite plainly as South Africa’s most vital contemporary filmmaker… Both a shiver-delicate exploration of unspoken desire and a scarringly brilliant anatomy of white South African masculinity. It fair takes your breath away.”

Adapted from an autobiographical 2006 novel by André Carl van der Merwe, Moffie is set in South Africa, 1981, with the white minority government embroiled in a conflict on the southern Angolan border. Like all white boys over the age of 16, Nicholas Van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) must complete two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime. The threat of communism and die swart gevaar is at an all-time high. But that’s not the only danger Nicholas faces. He must survive the brutality of the army – something that becomes even more difficult when a connection is sparked between him and a fellow recruit.

IFC Films recently bought North American rights for Moffie. The film is produced by South African-born Eric Abraham, who has produced two Oscar-winning films: Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida and Jan Sverak’s Kolya.

Fiela Se Kind | Drama film

In this new adaptation of Dalene Matthee’s beloved novel, a coloured woman living in the arid Karoo takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own. Nine years later, the boy is removed and forced to live in the Knysna Forest with a family of woodcutters who claim he is theirs.

Separated by law and geography, Fiela and Benjamin spend the next decade trying to find each other while simultaneously coming to terms with their individual identities. Fiela has lost a son and slowly descends into depression, a state of mind that is further exasperated by the abuse that she experiences from both law and Benjamin’s new father as she tries to find him. Benjamin, on the other hand, is thrust into an abusive and impoverished environment, one where he is forced to take on a new identity while suppressing the one he has.

On 20 December 2020, Fiela Se Kind won Best Sound at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. This followed wins for Best Film at the 2020 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) and the Audience Choice Award at Silwerskerm. Fiela Se Kind also took home Best Script for writer-director Brett Michael Innes (Sink) at the SAFTAs, Best Score (Kyle Shepherd) at Silwerskerm, and Best Actress for Zenobia Kloppers (Suidooster) at the South African Independent Film Festival.

Knuckle City | Boxing movie 

On 20 December 2020, Knuckle City won Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design at The Africa Movie Academy Awards, where it was the most nominated film, up for 12 awards, including Best Film, Best Actor (SAFTA winner Bongile Mantsai from Inxeba | The Wound), Best Director (multiple-SAFTA winner Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, who is also making the upcoming Showmax Original Blood Psalms), and Best Supporting Actress (Faniswa Yisa from upcoming Showmax Original DAM). Knuckle City was the most awarded film at this year’s SAFTAs, taking home six awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Mantsai.

In South Africa’s powerful 2020 Oscar entry, an ageing, womanising professional boxer (Mantsai) and his career-criminal brother (Thembekile Komani) take one last shot at success and get more than they’ve bargained for. Knuckle City is a rare South African film with a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “It is impossible not to be completely consumed by Knuckle City,” wrote The Globe and Mail when the film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, describing it as “Raging Bull meets Rocky, but in South Africa” and praising its navigation of “the painful issues of toxic masculinity, age and the impossible-seeming choices one can be forced to make to ensure the survival of themselves and the people they love… Mantsai’s performance is gripping, electrifying and heart-breaking.” 

The Ghost and the House Of Truth | Crime drama | Bonus African pick

On 20 December 2020, The Ghost and The House of Truth won Best Editing at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). It had been the third most nominated film going into the awards, with seven nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Akin Omotoso, who previously won the category for Vaya). 

In The Ghost and The House of Truth, Bola Ogun (BAFTA Breakthrough Brit winner Susan Wokoma from Enola Holmes) is a dedicated counsellor who facilitates reconciliation sessions between convicts and the victims of their crimes. But when her own daughter goes missing, her belief in forgiveness is tested. Shot in Makoko, Nigeria, the award-winning crime drama also stars AMAA Best Actress winner Kate Henshaw (Chief Daddy, 4th Republic) as Folashade, a police inspector in the Child Protection Unit, and AMAA Best Young Actor winner Kemi Lala Akindoju (Dazzling Mirage, Banana Island Ghost, Fifty), who also co-produced.