11 More Fab South African Movies You Might Have Missed

So many people replied to our story “12 of SA’s Best Movies You Might Have Missed” – especially “Dirkie”, which triggered many a childhood memory – we thought we’d add some of the most popular suggestions that didn’t make it onto the first list. 1. e’Lollipop (aka Forever Young, Forever Free) (1975) A black South African boy […]

So many people replied to our story “12 of SA’s Best Movies You Might Have Missed” – especially “Dirkie”, which triggered many a childhood memory – we thought we’d add some of the most popular suggestions that didn’t make it onto the first list.

1. e’Lollipop (aka Forever Young, Forever Free) (1975)

A black South African boy (Muntu Ndebele) follows his white orphan friend to New York and gets lost in Harlem.

2. Katrina (1969)

Katrina is about love across the colour line, and tells the story of a coloured doctor and white woman who fall in love. Here’s a clip with Joe Stewardson. The movie’s theme was sung by Jill Kirkland and made it to the Top 20.

3. Animals are Beautiful People (1974)

Who can forget the famous maroela-eating scenes in the Jamie Uys movie?

4. Jock of the Bushveld (1986)

The well-known South African story of a man and his dog.

https://youtu.be/agVBwkL7FVE

5. Lord Oom Piet (1962)

Oom Piet and Sir David land up political enemies, not realising their kids are in love. An early one from Jamie Uys.

6. The Winners/My Way (1972).

Joe Stewardson plays a former Olympic winner obsessed with victory for his children. (The poster says it all!) winners my way

7. Paljas (1998)

Paljas is about the relationship between a circus clown and a young boy, and the miraculous way in which this relationship manages to heal the lives of a troubled family. Katinka Heyns (she was “Katrina”) directs. The first South African movie to be in the nominations for a Best Foreign Movie Oscar.

https://youtu.be/b7JGMGzK5Bk

8. Storie van Klara Viljee (1992)

Another one from Katinka Heyns. When the seamstress Klara loses her father and her fiancé at sea, she decides she never wants to see the ocean again.

https://youtu.be/Uh1AnbdO79s

9. Boesman and Lena (1973)

Based on the Athol Fugard play of the same name, with Fugard and Yvonne Bryceland playing a coloured man and woman walking between shantytowns.

boesman and lena

10. Ipi Tombi (1994)

Adapted from the Bertha Egnos musical, the movie is about two rival tribes, the journey and adventures of a prince through city life and back, a spear fight, a traditional wedding and the scrutiny of the United Nations.

https://youtu.be/5qsJp9JSfBE

11. Die Kandidaat (1968)

The Jans Rautenbach movie follows a group of intellectual Afrikaners struggling with moral, ethical and racial issues in apartheid South Africa.