Jerry Mofokeng Movies

A solemn look at South African apartheid, Arthur Penn's claustrophobic drama centers on a pair of political interrogations, separated by a decade. The film's first part, set in 1988, centers on the imprisonment of Marty Strydom (Eric Stoltz), an Afrikaaner university professor held as a political prisoner under suspicion of conspiring with anti-government forces. His case falls into the hands of the villainous Colonel Kruger (Nigel Hawthorne), a brilliant and evil torturer determined to break the idealistic Strydom's spirit. The conclusion takes place nearly a decade later, after apartheid's fall. Now it is Krueger who is under confinement, and subjected to unrelenting questioning from a black South African (Louis Gossett Jr.) looking to beat Kruger at his own manipulative game. While offering numerous powerful confrontations between its characters, Bima Stagg's screenplay provides few narrative surprises, and some may find the film's limited setting and bare-bones treatments monotonous. However, Penn's stark style suits the harsh subject matter and keeps the focus strongly upon the cast, who provide appropriately intense performances. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

A bright young man from a remote South African farming village finds his quest to become a physician thrown into question in director Teddy Mattera's thoughtful African drama. Max (Mpho Lovinga) is a man who lives in a remote village and is respected by his friends and neighbors for his remarkable talent for mourning -- which he inherited from his beloved grandfather. Realizing that Max is meant for something more in life, the villagers all take up a collection in order to send the young man to medical school in Johannesburg. Though all seems well, as aspiring doctor Max sets out for the city in the company of a goat that he was to deliver for a wedding feast, events quickly take a turn for the worse when the villagers realize that they have mistakenly given Max a sacred animal. Later, after finding love in the arms of the beautiful Nozipho (Thumi Melamu), the aspiring medico misses the registration deadline and is left with no other choice than to seek out the aid of his notorious uncle Norman (Jerry Mofokeng). A constant schemer who plots to use Max's tuition money to get a local gangster named Razor off of his back, Norman eventually convinces Max that his unique ability to manufacture tears could earn the pair a steady paycheck in a city where people have forgotten how to cry. While Max reluctantly agrees to use his gift to turn a profit, he later finds that his well has run dry when the time comes for sincere mourning. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi