Best South African drama movies
Get ready to binge. We've found a collection of must-watch drama films from South Africa, now streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Five Fingers for Marseilles (2018)
Years ago, the young Five Fingers fought for the rural town of Marseilles against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, Tau, one of them, returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
Sarafina! (1992)
Sarafina! (1992)
The plot centers on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The stage version presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the school girl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when a policeman shoots several pupils in a classroom. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of act two. In the movie version Sarafina feels shame at her mother's (played by Miriam Makeba in the film) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film version) is imprisoned.
Moffie (2020)
The Gift (2010)
The Gift (2010)
A disillusioned Johannesburg street thug rescues an orphaned child with uncontrollable supernatural powers. On the run, he must help the sickly boy master his gift before a superstitious family member finds them.
Kanarie (2018)
Kanarie (2018)
Kanarie (Afrikaans for 'Canary') is a coming-of-age musical war drama. Drafted into the South African army during apartheid, a young soldier joins the military's traveling choir, and romance on the battlefield causes him to deal with his long-repressed sexual identity through hardship, camaraderie, first love, and the liberating freedom of music, the true self can be discovered.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
Lilies Not for Me (2025)
Lilies Not for Me (2025)
In 1920s England, a gay novelist and his psychiatric nurse form an unlikely friendship over a series of doctor-prescribed "dates." Through their conversations, he tells her the story of his relationship with an old friend which spiraled out of control when they turned to a risky procedure to cure themselves of their forbidden feelings for one another.
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
The Pirates of Somalia (2017)
After an inspiring chance encounter with his idol, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer, he attempts to get embedded with the local Somali pirates, only to quickly find himself in over his head.
Glasshouse (2021)
Glasshouse (2021)
A mother and her three daughters — romantic Bee, sensible Evie, and child of nature Daisy — occupy the titular glass building, which has been completely sealed off to protect its occupants from a dementia-inducing toxin called the Shred that’s poisoning the air outside. Fearful of becoming like the lost souls who wander the abyss outside, the family keep a grasp on their past by performing sacred rituals. When Bee breaks the rules and lets an injured stranger into their midst, the family dynamic is shattered forever, as hidden truths upend the illusions the women have worked so hard to protect.
The Visual Bible: Matthew (1993)
The Visual Bible: Matthew (1993)
The only dramatization using the actual scriptures...word for word from the New International Version (NIV). In Israel, then known as Judea of the Roman Empire, Nazarene Jesus Christ travels around the country with His disciples preaching to the people about God and salvation of their souls.
Forever Young, Forever Free (1975)
Forever Young, Forever Free (1975)
"e’Lollipop" is the extraordinary story of two inseparable South African children, Tsepo and his orphaned friend Jannie. Jannie is sent to a missionary station in Tsepo’s village where they become best friends as Jannie finds his place in his new home. Life is full of childhood fun and antics until tragedy strikes: Jannie, now 10 years old, is seriously injured. In the face of much adversity, Tsepo and his community pull together so that Jannie can get specialised medical treatment. A daunting challenge lies ahead... At what cost will Jannie survive? Tsepo and Jannie’s inspirational story unfolds against the breathtaking backdrops of a dramatic African landscape and New York City in the mid-1970s. "e’Lollipop" is a life-changing story that reminds us of the true value of friendship, community, sacrifice and family - despite our color or creed.
The Hex (2020)
The Hex (2020)
A grieving British girl unravels her murdered mother's secrets connected to a South African witch doctor's curse. She wants to put an end to this haunting hex by traveling to South Africa, but instead it casts her deeper into sinister depths.
Beauty (2011)
Beauty (2011)
François van Heerden, a mid-40s Afrikaans family man, has become devoid of any care or concern for his own measure of happiness, and so convinced of his ill-fated existence, that he is wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean, controlled life.
Breathing In (2023)
Breathing In (2023)
1901, South Africa. As the Second Anglo-Boer War rages on, a wounded General seeks refuge in the small home of a woman and her young daughter. As the hurt man settles in, he begins noticing that something is off about the two women, particularly the daughter, and before long, he’ll learn the real reason for why they’ve invited him and for how they’ve survived on their own for so long.
Good Madam (2021)
Good Madam (2021)
In post-apartheid South Africa, Tsidi, a single mother, is forced to move in with her own estranged mother Mavis, a live-in domestic worker caring obsessively for her catatonic white ‘Madam’. And as Tsidi tries to heal her family, a sinister spectre begins to stir.
Fiela's Child (2019)
Fiela's Child (2019)
Southern Africa, 1880. A mixed-race woman living in the arid Karoo takes in a lost white child and raises him as her own. Nine years later, he is forced to live in the Knysna Forest with a group of woodpeckers that claim to be his family.
The Girl (2012)
The Girl (2012)
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.
The Story of an African Farm (2004)
The Story of an African Farm (2004)
The 1870's. South Africa. Life is normal at the farm on the slopes of a Karoo Kopje.Things change when the sinister, eccentric Bonaparte Blenkins with bulbous nose and chimney pot hat arrives. Their childhood is disrupted by the bombastic Irishman who claims blood ties with Wellington and Queen Victoria and so gains uncanny influence over the girls' gross stupid stepmother.
Zulu Wedding (2019)
Zulu Wedding (2019)
Lu left South Africa and her Zulu-Sotho heritage behind to become a dancer in America, and when she falls in love with Tex, she knows he’s the man to marry. But when she brings Tex home to meet her family, she discovers she’s been promised since birth to a Zulu king. Caught between two men, two families, and two countries, Lou has to come to terms with who she is so she can fight for what she wants.
Fiela's Child (1988)
Fiela's Child (1988)
The acclaimed drama based on Dalene Matthee´s award-winning novel. "Fiela se Kind" (Fiela's Child) is the story of a white foundling boy that is raised by a brown family. But the childs life changes irrevocably when white census officials discover him living across the established borders of society, and he is removed from his foster parents. "This is the moving story about a close family being torn apart by the social convictions of the day. It is the story of a mother´s enduring love and hope to see her taken son again. Fiela is a down to earth woman farmer who does not let anyone step on her. She raised a white castaway child, Benjamin, and teaches him the simple things in life."
The Fury (2022)
The Fury (2022)
Unable to find justice for her sister, who killed herself after being raped a decade ago, avenging angel Zola Kunene lures the man she believes responsible to an empty apartment - She ties him up and puts on a show-trial, live-streamed on social-media. The public will be judge and jury.Should it be necessary, Zola will be the executioner.
Happiness Ever After (2021)
Umjolo: Day Ones (2024)
Peacock (2023)
Peacock (2023)
POU is a South African gothic horror following the journey of a young woman into the dark recesses of the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past.
The Last Ranger (2024)
The Last Ranger (2024)
When young Litha is introduced to the magic of a game reserve by the last remaining ranger, they are ambushed by poachers. In the ensuing battle to save the rhinos, Litha discovers a terrible secret.
Faith Like Potatoes (2006)
Faith Like Potatoes (2006)
Frank Rautenbach leads a strong cast as Angus Buchan, a Zambian farmer of Scottish heritage, who leaves his farm in the midst of political unrest and racially charged land reclaims and travels south with his family to start a better life in KwaZulu Natal,South Africa.
Dominee Tienie (2018)
Dominee Tienie (2018)
After sixteen years as the reverend of the mother church, Tienie Benade is confronted with a steep decline in the number of churchgoers and a modern society that is rapidly changing. Do clergymen, or even the church, still have a role to play in this world? He is trying his best to adapt and make sense of the changes, but, in the process, he is alienating his wife and children. After an incident with a dying vagrant, Tienie finds himself at a crossroads. Will he be able to regain his self-confidence and win back the love of his family and will he be brave enough to provide guidance to his congregation in this new era? Based on the play by Dana Snyman.
Mossie (2016)
Mossie (2016)
I am Luna van Wyk. A 14 year old girl. This is the story of Mignon "Mossie" Van Wyk, my older sister. Oh and her best friend Adriaan Prinsloo, who I think she should marry. But that's just me. For some weird reason Mossie falls in love with older guys - enter Leon Rossouw - obviously without a shirt. This is a story about love, naturally, but it's more about being a teenager and how rough life can be. It's a story about monsters and running shoes. About letting go and holding on. About friendship. It's a story about my sister and how she learns to fly.