Stream these films on Showmax to get you in the mood for a showcase of eye-opening, provocative, fascinating film.
The Boers at the End of the World (2016)
Argentina’s Patagonian region is home to an Afrikaans-speaking community. Their origins date back to 1902, when their ancestors set sail for Argentina following the destruction of their farms during the South African War. Breathtaking landscape photography and farmers on horseback give the film a western vibration. Candid and charmingly naive older residents serve as the film’s guides.
Richard Finn Gregory’s immersive and spellbinding documentary centres on identity and the preservation of customs. Proud of their heritage and echoing Searching for Sugar Man, there’s a strange melancholy at its core as the boers make an emotional voyage back to here-and-now South Africa.
204: Getting Away with Murder (2014)
Brett Kebble was a charismatic yet controversial businessman, whose media coverage reached an all-time high in 2005 after he died in a hail of bullets. 204: Getting Away with Murder is an absorbing, gritty and layered documentary that unearths the shocking and stranger-than-fiction story behind his mob-style assassination.
“204” refers to the permanent indemnity from prosecution offered to many key individuals in the wake of Kebble’s apparent hit. Investigating the characters, companies and events leading up to his untimely death, documentarian Warren Batchelor explores questionable legal proceedings and unresolved matters.
While 204 may lack finesse, it powers home with an entertaining blend of page-turning paperback docudrama, a pinch of sleazy dark comedy and steely-eyed passion.
Blood Lions (2015)
The lion is revered as the “King of the Jungle”, which is why wealthy international hunters are so eager to add the iconic African predator’s head to their trophy room. Renowned environmental journalist Ian Michler has made it his mission to expose and create awareness around lion breeding and the canned hunting industry, now a multi-million-dollar industry in South Africa.
Blood Lions uncovers some of the culprits at the heart of this despicable, lucrative and largely unregulated trade. Coming from the perspective of an investigative journalist and an undercover trophy hunter, we get both sides of the story first hand.
Blood Lions unpacks the insidious nature of the so-called sport, seeking to expose conservation, tourism and professional hunting bodies who have become complicit in the trade.
A New Country (2020)
How did we get from the euphoria of 1994 to the fractured South Africa of today?
Through forthright interviews with informal workers, politicians, academics, and artists, director Sifiso Khanyile (Uprize) traces our journey as a country over the past three decades, and looks at the state of the Rainbow Nation today.
A New Country earned a Special Mention at this year’s Jozi Film Festival, where it also won Best Director.
Encounters called the documentary “heartbreakingly insightful”.
