Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 250: Mon Sep 17

Come Back Africa (Rogosin, 1959): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.40pm


This pulsating 35mm screening is part of the 'Black and Banned' season at BFI Southbank. You can find details of all the films in the season here.

Time Out review:
Lionel Rogosin's docudrama was an early exposé of the evils of apartheid, filmed clandestinely and using a non-professional cast who portray a typical township family, separated by law and drifting through a series of menial jobs until a single infringement (i.e. man and wife share a night together) leads to a singularly bleak denouement. Although the film has considerable weaknesses - principally on the narrative level of performance, and the need to spell everything out in the manner of a social science course (this last, an entirely understandable decision for 1959) - its power comes from the location filming of the township, which might have been shot today. This township - Sophiatown - was once the only place in South Africa where blacks could own freehold properties. The area was demolished and became a white suburb called Triumph.

Adrian Turner


Here (and above) is the trailer.

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