While the label \u201cmoffie\u201d is derogatory and homophobic, director Oliver Hermanus hopes his eponymous film, like the book it is based on, will make people think about the word in a different way.<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on the prestigious Venice Film Festival this week where Moffie will make its world premiere. The film is also nominated for a prestigious Queer Lion Award, honouring films that address LGBT+ themes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The film is based on the memoir by Andr\u00e9 Carl van der Merwe and tells the story of a gay conscript who embarks on his military service in 1981.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was something about the shame factor, which is a big theme in the book, which I felt was important to explore in a South African film,\u201d Hermanus told the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n Like local film Inxeba (The Wound) before it, Moffie challenges stigmas and explores the sexuality of a gay person in a hypermasculine and conservative environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SADF [South African Defence Force] in the 1980s was this massive machine that was trying to keep apartheid going. It was \u2026 a time when white nationalism was at its most aggressive.<\/p>\n \u201cOur history doesn\u2019t document how, for many white teenagers in the military, the system was against them.\u201d<\/p>\n The film is set for release in SA later this year.<\/p>\n This is only the fourth South African film to receive an invitation to the film festival. Hermanus\u2019s 2015 film, The Endless River, was the first South African film to compete for the Golden Lion, the highest prize at the festival and one of the most prestigious in the film world.<\/p>\n Another of his films, Skoonheid (Beauty), won him the Queer Palm at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n The sometimes graphic scenes in Skoonheid were \u201cconfronting for a lot of audiences\u201d, Hermanus acknowledged. While Moffie may be different, \u201cfor conservative audiences it will, at the very least, be very eye-opening\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the title of the film is provocative. The film is trying to deactivate the word or reappropriate it in a different way. I think it is still a weapon. \u2018Moffie\u2019 is still used to shame, belittle and dehumanise people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel that we have made movements forward, but there are still parts of the world where being gay is a crime, and we can\u2019t forget that,\u201d Hermanus said.<\/p>\n