Table Manners (2018)

SAFTA Award-winning writer and actress Nkuli Sibeko must have been channelling French chef Julia Child when she wrote the script for her 2018 film, Table Manners. Not long into the beautifully shot movie, and with a gorgeous green-walled kitchen as the backdrop, the lead actress is slowly and deliberately melting a large block of creamy, golden butter in preparation for making something delicious, and you just know everything is going to be okay.

As the famous French chef said, “with enough butter, anything is good.” And that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Megan, played by Diaan Lawrenson, who you’ll remember from rom-com Semi Soet, is married to Lloyd (Neels van Jaarsveld). Her life comes crashing down around her when he is arrested for tax fraud and she loses everything.

But together with her best friend for life, the perfectly cast and beautifully styled Renate Stuurman (Happiness is a Four Letter Word), her acerbic and reluctantly supportive mom (Fiona Ramsey) and her cute and confident son, newcomer Julian Robinson, she sets out to discover what’s really important to her.

Table Manners is all about good food and family, and how cooking creates space for relationships, resilience and redemption.