Movie Review - Moffie

Premiered at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival, this work was nominated for the Queer Lion. Director and co-writer, Oliver Hermanus is himself queer, a gay man from South Africa. His second feature Beauty (Skoonheid) won the Queer Palm at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His third feature, The Endless River became the first, South African film to compete for the Golden Lion at the 2015 Venice International Film Festival. This is his fourth feature and he returns to the themes from his Queen Palm winner. Hermanus is in fact adapting the autobiographical novel by André Carl van der Merwe about being secretly gay in the military. The title of the film is a South African, anti-gay slur. The titular word basically translates to "faggot" in English, and the film focuses on homophobia within the armed services.

The film is set in 1981 South Africa, so the issue of Apartheid is raised. We see depictions of blatant racism that are powerful, terrifying, horrible and at times gut-wrenching. The film doesn't really delve any deeper into the issue though. It's there to represent the time and set the milieu. Van der Merwe's book probably delves deeper into the issue, but Hermanus' film has it mainly as an undercurrent. It's given short shrift, but I probably only feel that way because I'm an American who knows practically nothing about South African history and culture. The context I desire probably would just be redundant to any South African viewer.

It's arguable how much context is required for any military or war film. There's generally no need to explain the context of World War II. The conflict here is what's known as the South African Border War or the Namibian War of Independence. It's a conflict that lasted from 1966 to 1990 and could be considered akin to the Vietnam War for South Africa. I'm not an expert in South African history, but while the Border War was framed as a fight against Communism, such as the Vietnam War was, the Border War was in reality not about that. This film hints at the misinformation to frame this war as something that it wasn't and that the war was actually a gross expression and extension of Apartheid. Yet, the film only hints at this and doesn't explore it fully. Instead this film is more about homophobia in the military ranks.

Kai Luke Brümmer stars as Nicholas van der Swart, a teenage boy who has been conscripted or drafted into the South African military. He seems to be placed in the South African army. He's taken by train out to a remote military installation where he undergoes basic training or boot camp. Like with Full Metal Jacket (1987) or Tigerland (2000), the majority of this film centers on that boot camp where we mainly watch gross displays of torture and abuse, the raw essence of toxic masculinity, all in the name of whipping, young men like Nicholas into shape. It's all done in the vein of preparing Nicholas and the other men for the horrors of war.

What's evident though is that this so-called basic training or what could be considered torture and abuse is having a psychological toll or deleterious effect on the minds and mental well-being of these men or at least some of them. Of course, that torture and abuse is exacerbated by the fact that the drill sergeant implementing all this toxic masculinity is also a raging homophobe. The film puts us in the shoes of Nicholas who himself is gay but obviously closeted and wants desperately not to reveal his homosexuality. The film underscores the fact that hiding his feelings can't be easy with all of the obvious homoeroticism in the form of physically attractive boys being all around, in close quarters, often shirtless, showering and sleeping together. Hermanus' camera of course takes the opportunity to linger on their shirtless and often fully naked forms.

There aren't many films about homosexuality in the military. The few that there are came to mind as I was watching this one. Even though the film isn't necessarily about gays in combat, Gods and Monsters (1998) had a line of dialogue that always stayed with me. The character of James Whale says, "There may be no atheists in the foxholes, but there are, occasionally, lovers." Hermanus' film realizes this idea by putting Nicholas and his love interest, Dylan Stassen, played by Ryan de Villiers, in a literal foxhole. However, if you've seen films that do center on LGBTQ people in the armed services, films like Soldier's Girl (2003) and Yossi & Jagger (2003), then nothing new or surprising will be found here. If anything, this film is more muted and somehow less confrontational about the issue or enlightening about the possible relationships.

The best example of the topic was actually on television. FX's American Crime Story had its second season called The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Episode 5 was called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (2018). That episode, which likely garnered Finn Wittrock his second Emmy nomination, was an incredible look at homophobia in the military and still stands as the prime example to me. This film is a delicate touch with a bittersweet ending that had echoes to Moonlight (2016), even with its Academy ratio film format.

Not Rated but contains nudity, sexuality and violence.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 44 mins.

Available on Hulu.