Mapantsula

Pretty cool because this is an anti-apartheid movie created during apartheid

Pretty cool because this is an anti-apartheid movie created during apartheid

Mapanstula isn't necessarily a movie about apartheid. For most of the runtime, we follow a petty thief trying to make ends meet and find his girlfriend after she broke up with him. Through the course of the movie he ends up non-politically entangled with some anti-apartheid activists and that's the heart of the political aspect of the movie. But I don't think this movie was banned because it was trying to spread a message. I think moreso it's the fact that even in the day-to-day moments you can see just how vile white Afrikaaners are. Every step of the way you see how racism and violence is completely entrenched in South African society, with a real boots on the ground perspective. It's honest, it doesn't act like apartheid is the only thing happening but it's also never something you can forget, a constant threat in the background.

This is what South Africa was like 20 years ago, and the government was so mad that they were honestly portrayed, they did everything in their power to destroy this movie. Clearly they haven't learned any lessons, even today white Afrikaaners like to LARP as victims of genocide after being neo-Nazis last week (relatively speaking).

Mapanstula isn't necessarily a movie about apartheid. For most of the runtime, we follow a petty thief trying to make ends meet and find his girlfriend after she broke up with him. Through the course of the movie he ends up non-politically entangled with some anti-apartheid activists and that's the heart of the political aspect of the movie. But I don't think this movie was banned because it was trying to spread a message. I think moreso it's the fact that even in the day-to-day moments you can see just how vile white Afrikaaners are. Every step of the way you see how racism and violence is completely entrenched in South African society, with a real boots on the ground perspective. It's honest, it doesn't act like apartheid is the only thing happening but it's also never something you can forget, a constant threat in the background.

This is what South Africa was like 20 years ago, and the government was so mad that they were honestly portrayed, they did everything in their power to destroy this movie. Clearly they haven't learned any lessons, even today white Afrikaaners like to LARP as victims of genocide after being neo-Nazis last week (relatively speaking).