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Mapantsula

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2:07

Mapantsula

Released Dec 3, 1989

1h 45m

Drama

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100%

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6 Reviews

82%

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50+ Ratings

During demonstrations in apartheid-era South Africa, the police arrest Panic (Thomas Mogotlane), a "mapantsula" or petty gangster, while rounding up activists. His interrogation reveals the motivation for his involvement in the township riots. Once only concerned with partying, alcohol and his own interests, Panic finds himself being irreversibly pulled into the fray. Now, he is forced to choose between his personal freedom and taking a stand in the fight against the oppressive apartheid government.

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Janet Maslin

New York Times

Mr. Mogotlane makes Panic much more than a symbol, treating him as a raffish, amusingly overconfident figure at first and a visibly shaken man as the film progresses, until at last he utters the single syllable that encapsulates the film's final point.

Jun 30, 2023

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Michael Wilmington

Los Angeles Times

The film starts as a racy gangster melodrama with an unusually pungent low-life city background, then builds inexorably to a moral reckoning, a ferocious, unforgettable denouement.

Jun 30, 2023

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Tony Rayns

Time Out

The result has much the same energy that Lino Brocka brings to his Filipino slum melodramas, and it gets far closer to the sights, sounds, smells and rhythms of Soweto life than an entire Attenborough of white liberal movies.

Jun 24, 2006

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Bradley Gibson

Film Threat

Mapantsula came out in a world with a different set of challenges than we face in 2024, and we are changed people from those who lived in 1988. The contrast is enlightening and interesting.

Rated: 8/10

Jul 29, 2024

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David Parkinson

Radio Times

Thomas Mogotlane excels as Panic, the eminently resistible thief who reveals unsuspected levels of determination and dignity as he endures the same sadistic brutality as the militant activists with whom he shares a cell.

Rated: 4.5/5

Aug 30, 2004

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Film4 Staff

Film4

An intelligent and passionate voice from South Africa, from a period when its government was doing all in its power to deny such things.

May 24, 2003

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Audience Member

Great, honest portrayal of the reality of apartheid. Deserves more recognition.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

Mapantsula - made secretly in S Africa under the aparthied govt on a minimal budget - is a remarkable film detailing the incarceration of a young Bantu street criminal who comes to understand that militant action is the only way to change South Africa's racist social order. Not as straight forward as one might expect of such a film, it skillfully cross cuts between the police interrogation of 'Panic' and the circumstances leading up his arrest for petty crime (using a similar narrative structure to Citizen Kane and Dead Man's Shoes) set against the Soweto uprising of the 1970s. As with much of the most interesting and challenging World cinema - 'The Harder they Come' for instance - the central character - a dispossesed 'Other' uses violent action as it provides the only means to achieve a sense of human dignity and empowerment. A brilliant under-rated and hard to find gem, which i originally saw on release (with only 6 other people in the entire cinema!) and which advocates a powerful underlying radical politics. Try to hunt it out- let me know if anyone spots it on DVD as its a must for any anyone genuinely interested in world cinema. An incredible achievement

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

I thought this was a really great film. But nobody seems to have seen it. A rare triumph of cinema to ocntain so much power and have such a well thought out ending with impact. I enjoyed most of the film and never felt tedious or duped like most films do to me. This review is wierd. Another knotch on the belt, ehh?!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

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Oliver Schmitz

Director

Thomas Mogotlane

Panic

Marcel van Heerden

Stander

Thembi Mtshali

Pat

Dolly Rathebe

Ma Modise

Peter Sephuma

Duma Sithole

Mapantsula: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

During demonstrations in apartheid-era South Africa, the police arrest Panic (Thomas Mogotlane), a "mapantsula" or petty gangster, while rounding up activists. His interrogation reveals the motivation for his involvement in the township riots. Once only concerned with partying, alcohol and his own interests, Panic finds himself being irreversibly pulled into the fray. Now, he is forced to choose between his personal freedom and taking a stand in the fight against the oppressive apartheid government.

Director: Oliver Schmitz
Producer: Oliver Schmitz, Max Montocchio
Screenwriter: Oliver Schmitz, Thomas Mogotlane
Distributor: California Newsreel
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 3, 1989, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jul 26, 2024
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 28, 2025
Box Office (Gross USA): $6.7K
Runtime: 1h 45m

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