South African cinema spans intimate documentary and bold genre filmmaking, from the Oscar-winning My Octopus Teacher to Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi allegory District 9, which used Johannesburg's own landscape to tell a story about segregation and displacement. It's a body of work that consistently draws on the country's complex history and extraordinary natural world. See what Macca made of it all below.
Rating: 2.5★
There are films that arrive out of nowhere, make an improbable fortune at the box office, and then spend the following decades generating a rather uncomfortable conversation about what, exactly, we were all laughing at. The Gods Must Be Crazy is one of those films. Released in South Africa in
Rating: 2.5★
There is a particular flavour of genre film that announces its intentions in the title and then dares you to keep up. They Will Kill You, arriving in 2026 from the production partnership of Nocturna, New Line Cinema, Domain Entertainment and Film Afrika, is very much that kind of picture.
Rating: 2.0★
Rudolf Buitendach is a South African filmmaker who has worked across commercials, short films, and low-budget features, generally operating in that productive but unglamorous space where resourceful production and modest ambition tend to meet. Where the Road Runs Out, released in 2014 and co-produced through Cotton Tree Productions
Genre Action
★½ — Death Race 2 (2010)
Genre Documentary
★★★ — My Octopus Teacher (2020)
Genre Action
★★ — Rising Storm (1989)
Country Ethiopia
★★ — Adera (2009)
Genre Adventure
★★★½ — Runs in the Family (2023)
Genre Action
★★★ — The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989)
Genre Science Fiction
★★★★ — District 9 (2009)
Genre Action
★★★ — Dredd (2012)
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