50 Films & TV Shows Set In South Africa During The 20th Century
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Sophiatown
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1950sLittle Bird's first South African production, SOPHIATOWN has won the award for Best Documentary at the Cape Town World Cinema Festival 2003. SOPHIATOWN celebrates the great popular jazz music of the 1950's in South Africa; a rich tradition deserving international attention. Director Pascale Lamche, traces the music, uncovers the artists who created it and the unique culture in which it thrived, concentrated in Sophiatown, Johannesburg's own Harlem, which fuelled by liberation politics until its destruction by the Apartheid regime. The film features Nelson Mandela and such household names from the jazz world as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya.
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The Color of Friendship
District of Columbia ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sMahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
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Dangerous Ground
California ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1980s The 1990sWhat he wants is revenge. What he gets is the fight of his life. โ Vusi Madlazi returns to the South African village he left as a young boy to bury his father. He meets up with his brother Ernest, who tells him their other brother Stephen couldn't be contacted. Vusi goes to Johannesburg to find him, but at first can only find his neighbor/girlfriend, Karin, a stripper. Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better for black men.
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Operation Delta Force
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1990sNegotiations Are Over! โ A team of military experts and scientists go after a terrorist group that has seized a deadly virus and is threatening to release it.
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Cry, the Beloved Country
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1940sA South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.
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Oh Schucks...! Here Comes UNTAG
๐ณ๐ฆ Namibia ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1990sKwagga Robertse owns a farm shop in the fictional Southern African country of Nambabwe and usually cons foreign tourists by pretending to kill a lion, thus earning him the nickname 'Urumbo' (Lion Killer) from the country's natives. Kwagga is upset when the UN sends a platoon of incompetent soldiers with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (U.N.T.A.G.), to monitor the peace process, and ensure free and fair elections after the Nambabwean War for Independence. The U.N.T.A.G's American leader, Major Bradick D. Mackay and his second-in-command, Captain Zapman are offered a diamond worth a lot of money in the U.S., and they must pay 200,000 USD to Duan Robertse, Kwagga's competitive brother trying to buy a farm left to them by their dead father.
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Sarafina!
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sShe was their teacher. They were her hope. โ The plot centers on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The stage version presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the school girl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when a policeman shoots several pupils in a classroom. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of act two. In the movie version Sarafina feels shame at her mother's (played by Miriam Makeba in the film) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film version) is imprisoned.
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Lethal Weapon 2
California ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1980sThe magic is back! โ In the opening chase, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh stumble across a trunk full of Krugerrands. They follow the trail to a South African diplomat who's using his immunity to conceal a smuggling operation. When he plants a bomb under Murtaugh's toilet, the action explodes!
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The Gods Must Be Crazy II
๐ง๐ผ Botswana ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1980sThis Time, Everybody's Going Crazier. โ Xixo is back again. This time, his children accidentally stow away on a fast-moving poachers' truck, unable to get off, and Xixo sets out to rescue them. Along the way, he encounters a couple of soldiers trying to capture each other and a pilot and passenger of a small plane, who are each having a few problems of their own.
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A Dry White Season
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sDuring the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
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A World Apart
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1960sSouth Africa, 1963. A mother's love. A family's courage. โ A White enclave in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1960s. Molly Roth, 13 years old, is the daughter of leftist parents, and she must piece together what's happening around her when her father disappears one night, barely evading arrest, and, not long after, her mother is detained by the authorities. Some of Molly's White friends turn against her, and her family's friendships with Blacks take on new meaning. Relationships are fragile in the world of apartheid. How will she manage?
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Cry Freedom
๐ง๐ผ Botswana ๐ฑ๐ธ Lesotho ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sA dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.
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King Solomon's Mines
๐ณ๐ฆ Namibia ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1910sAn action packed adventure, full of laughs and heroics. โ Ever in search of adventure, explorer Allan Quatermain agrees to join the beautiful Jesse Huston on a mission to locate her archaeologist father, who has been abducted for his knowledge of the legendary mines of King Solomon. As the kidnappers, led by sinister German military officer Bockner, journey into the wilds of Africa, Allan and Jesse track the party and must contend with fierce natives and dangerous creatures, among other perils.
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Gandhi
England ๐ฎ๐ณ India ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1940s The 1930s The 1920s The 1910s The 1900s The 1890sHis triumph changed the world forever. โ In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
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The Gods Must Be Crazy
๐ง๐ผ Botswana ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1980sThe critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop! โ A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.
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Breaker Morant
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1900sA powerful true story of bitter revenge... โ During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.
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Game for Vultures
England ๐ฟ๐ผ Zimbabwe ๐ณ๐ฆ Namibia ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sIn every war there are those who kill... and those who make a killing! โ The South African businessman David Swansey is delivering illegal German helicopters to Rhodesia. That makes the patriot Gideon Marunga an angry man.
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The Wild Geese
England ๐ฟ๐ผ Zimbabwe ๐ธ๐ฟ Eswatini ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa Africa - General The 1970sA British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
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The Wilby Conspiracy
๐ง๐ผ Botswana ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1970sIn the fight for freedom, you have to break all the rules. โ Having spent 10 years in prison for nationalist activities, Shack Twala is finally ordered released by the South African Supreme Court but he finds himself almost immediately on the run after a run-in with the police. Assisted by his lawyer Rina Van Niekirk and visiting British engineer Jim Keogh, he heads for Capetown where he hopes to recover a stash of diamonds, meant to finance revolutionary activities, that he had entrusted to a dentist before his incarceration. Along the way, they are followed by Major Horn of the South African State security bureau and it becomes apparent that he has no intention of arresting them until they reach their final destination
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Young Winston
England ๐ธ๐ฉ Sudan ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1900s The 1890s The 1880s The 1870sRebel Soldier Hustler Prisoner Fugitive Firebrand โ This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.
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Sammy Going South
๐ช๐ฌ Egypt ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1950sIncredible Adventure in a Land That Knows a Thousand Dangers! โ After he is orphaned by an air raid on Port Said during the Suez Crisis, a young boy attempts to go by himself from the Suez Canal to Durban in South Africa where his nearest relative, Aunt Jane, lives. On the way he meets a variety of different people who help or hinder his journey - including an ageing diamond smuggler.
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Come Back, Africa
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1950sCome Back, Africa chronicles the life of Zachariah, a black South African living under the rule of the harsh apartheid government in 1959.
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Fortune in Diamonds
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1900sAs the Boer War ends a South African soldier hides a cache of diamonds he finds on a body. He returns to the town he left three years earlier where his girl has married a disgraced English officer. Needing funds to get back to pick up the diamonds the Boer enlists the help of a fellow soldier as well as the Englishman and a local hotel keeper. This ill-assorted bunch set off into the bush intent on finding their fortune.
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Uncle Kruger
England ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1900s The 1890sOhm Krรผger (English: Uncle Krรผger) is a 1941 German biographical film directed by Hans Steinhoff and starring Emil Jannings, Lucie Hรถflich and Werner Hinz. It was one of a series of propaganda films produced in Nazi Germany attacking the British. The film depicts the life of the South African politician Paul Kruger and his eventual defeat by the British during the Boer War. It was the first film to be awarded the 'Film of the Nation' award. It was re-released in 1944
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Rhodes of Africa
๐ฟ๐ผ Zimbabwe ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa The 1900s The 1890s The 1880s The 1870s The 1860sRhodes of Africa is a 1936 British biographical film charting the life of Cecil Rhodes. It was directed by Berthold Viertel and starred Walter Huston, Oskar Homolka, Basil Sydney and Bernard Lee.