Best South African drama movies
A curated collection of popular drama movies from South Africa.
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Years ago, the young Five Fingers fought for the rural town of Marseilles against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, Tau, one of them, returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it.
Moffie (2020)
Glasshouse (2021)
Glasshouse (2021)
A mother and her three daughters — romantic Bee, sensible Evie, and child of nature Daisy — occupy the titular glass building, which has been completely sealed off to protect its occupants from a dementia-inducing toxin called the Shred that’s poisoning the air outside. Fearful of becoming like the lost souls who wander the abyss outside, the family keep a grasp on their past by performing sacred rituals. When Bee breaks the rules and lets an injured stranger into their midst, the family dynamic is shattered forever, as hidden truths upend the illusions the women have worked so hard to protect.
Beauty (2011)
Beauty (2011)
François van Heerden, a mid-40s Afrikaans family man, has become devoid of any care or concern for his own measure of happiness, and so convinced of his ill-fated existence, that he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean, controlled life.
Breathing In (2023)
Breathing In (2023)
1901, South Africa. As the Second Anglo-Boer War rages on, a wounded General seeks refuge in the small home of a woman and her young daughter. As the hurt man settles in, he begins noticing that something is off about the two women, particularly the daughter, and before long, he’ll learn the real reason for why they’ve invited him and for how they’ve survived on their own for so long.
The Fury (2022)
The Fury (2022)
Unable to find justice for her sister, who killed herself after being raped a decade ago, avenging angel Zola Kunene lures the man she believes responsible to an empty apartment - She ties him up and puts on a show-trial, live-streamed on social-media. The public will be judge and jury.Should it be necessary, Zola will be the executioner.
Dominee Tienie (2018)
Dominee Tienie (2018)
After sixteen years as the reverend of the mother church, Tienie Benade is confronted with a steep decline in the number of churchgoers and a modern society that is rapidly changing. Do clergymen, or even the church, still have a role to play in this world? He is trying his best to adapt and make sense of the changes, but, in the process, he is alienating his wife and children. After an incident with a dying vagrant, Tienie finds himself at a crossroads. Will he be able to regain his self-confidence and win back the love of his family and will he be brave enough to provide guidance to his congregation in this new era? Based on the play by Dana Snyman.
Second Skin (2000)
Sleeper's Wake (2012)
Sleeper's Wake (2012)
In a secluded cove on the South African coast, a middle-aged writer grieving the deaths of his wife and daughter is drawn into an affair with an alluring teenage girl who is grappling with demons of her own, in this gripping psychological thriller adapted from the award-winning novel by Alistair Morgan. (TIFF)
The Last Victims (2019)
The Last Victims (2019)
A former member of South Africa's infamous death squad must atone for his past when he helps one survivor search for the bodies of a missing anti-apartheid cell. Unaware that as they hunt for answers, they too are being hunted.
Red Room (2019)
Red Room (2019)
When the husband of an affluent woman kills himself, she loses the high life and pretty much everything and ends up on the street, days before she was due to give birth. With nowhere to go and no money, she is attacked and mugged, but a good Samaritan rescues her and takes her to a shelter called God's Haven, a place of safety where she delivers her baby, but it turns out to be an entirely different world. A world run by danger, desire and deception.
Zulu Wedding (2019)
Zulu Wedding (2019)
Lu left South Africa and her Zulu-Sotho heritage behind to become a dancer in America, and when she falls in love with Tex, she knows he’s the man to marry. But when she brings Tex home to meet her family, she discovers she’s been promised since birth to a Zulu king. Caught between two men, two families, and two countries, Lou has to come to terms with who she is so she can fight for what she wants.
Happiness Ever After (2021)
Umjolo: Day Ones (2024)
Mossie (2016)
Mossie (2016)
I am Luna van Wyk. A 14 year old girl. This is the story of Mignon "Mossie" Van Wyk, my older sister. Oh and her best friend Adriaan Prinsloo, who I think she should marry. But that's just me. For some weird reason Mossie falls in love with older guys - enter Leon Rossouw - obviously without a shirt. This is a story about love, naturally, but it's more about being a teenager and how rough life can be. It's a story about monsters and running shoes. About letting go and holding on. About friendship. It's a story about my sister and how she learns to fly.
Love, Sex and 30 Candles (2023)
The Pro (2015)
The Pro (2015)
The Pro tells the story of a young surfer, Tiaan Nothnagel that has to come to terms with the accidental death of his best friend, Dirkie Lawrence just before their last year at school.After Dirkie’s death, Tiaan swears off surfing for good, as he can’t stand to be reminded of everything that he and Dirkie shared. But then, Dirkie’s twin sister (who went to live with their dad after their parents split up the previous year) arrives in town on a mission: to be selected to go on Wave-Seekers, a fictional World Surf Tour and something that Tiaan and Dirkie dreamt of doing.
The Windmill (2014)
The Windmill (2014)
The story is about 17-year-old Hendri who is forced to end up on the doorstep of his senile, withdrawn grandfather in a retirement home. Hendri soon realizes that there are so many more secrets hidden here than he could ever guess and that the biggest secret of all may just cost him the love of his life.
Ballade vir 'n Enkeling (2015)
Ballade vir 'n Enkeling (2015)
Based upon the book written by South African author Leon van Nierop, and the 1980s TV series it spawned, this drama focuses on the mysterious disappearance of celebrated writer Jacques Rynhard (Armand Aucamp), and the investigative hunt for him launched by journalist Carina Human (DonnaLee Roberts). Christia Visser, Rolanda Marais and Jacques Bessenger co-star.
Umjolo: My Beginning, My End! (2025)
After the Rain (1999)
Liefling (2010)
Liefling (2010)
The name of the film, Liefling, says it all. This is a love story that's been told by using evergreen Afrikaans songs from the 70's up to the latest hits of today. This musical is mainly about the life of Liefling Marais, a girl with a passion for life, who loves adventure. Liefling lives on a farm with her father Simon, mother Linda, grandfather Karel, brother Kobus and house keeper Katy. Simon is a professor at the university where we meet the 3 friends, Jan, Pieter and Gert in one of his classes. They also live in Hartbeespoort Jan lives with his grandmother Elsa Ferreira. The story starts during the December holidays. A spoilt rich girl, Melanie von Staden has one thing in mind and that is to reel in heart throb Jan Ferreira who has his eye set on Liefling. Fate unexpectedly brings lovers, friends and so called enemies together. This is a love story full of tears and laughter, song and dance.
Discreet (2008)
Discreet (2008)
Monique, a high class escort, has always been able to give her clients exactly what they want, while clean cut Thomas has always been exactly what everyone has expected. But tonight Thomas' curiosity is going to get the better of him while demanding of Monique the one thing she's reluctant to offer. Honesty, costs more.
Ayanda (2015)
Ayanda (2015)
A coming of age story of a twenty one year old Afro hipster, who embarks on a journey of self discovery trying to keep the memory of her father alive, when she's thrown into a world of greasy overalls, gender stereotypes and abandoned vintage cars in need of a young woman's re inventive touch who tries to reclaim what would've been, what could've been.
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (2005)
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (2005)
U-CARMEN is a feature film based on Georges Bizet's 19th-century opera that was filmed on location in a modern South African township setting. The energy, compassion, and heat of township life in all its elements create a constantly visually interesting and dynamic background for the unfolding of the story, which owes part of its huge popularity to the thrilling combination of a violent gangster tale with a passionate, almost supernatural love story. As it unfolds, it explores issues of fame and wealth, the position of a strong and independently minded woman in a very masculine society and, perhaps most importantly, the incomprehensible attraction between abuser and victim. Bizet's opera, based on Prosper Merimée's novel, premiered in Paris on March 3, 1875. Set in a poor area of Seville, the story of the magnetic woman who seduces, loves, and ultimately destroys her lover and herself...
Gugu and Andile (2009)
Gugu and Andile (2009)
The year is 1993, democracy is at hand, and South Africa's townships are burning. Gugu, a sixteen year-old from a Zulu speaking family falls in love with Andile, an eighteen year-old Xhosa youth. Their love is frowned upon by both communities.