Sembène Film Festival: Mapantsula (South Africa)

Mapantsula tells the story of Panic, a petty gangster who inevitably becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and he has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system. Mapantsula will give viewers an insider’s tour of township life and a foretaste of the vibrant popular cinema promised by the new, democratic South Africa. Mapantsula was the first anti-apartheid feature film by, for and about black South Africans. Filmed inside Soweto, scored to the urban beat of “Township Jive,” Mapantsula has been called a South African ‘The Harder They Come.’