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      Mapantsula

      1988 1h 45m Drama List
      100% 5 Reviews Tomatometer 89% 50+ Ratings Audience Score Panic (Thomas Mogotlane) is a low-rent hustler who works the crime-ridden streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, with only his own interests in mind. However, as the world around him shifts with the burgeoning anti-apartheid efforts, Panic finds himself being irreversibly pulled into the fray and his community. Now, Panic must choose between his selfish goals and becoming a part of a larger movement to fight the racism that has controlled his country for so long. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (5) Critics Reviews
      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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (3) audience reviews
      Audience Member Great, honest portrayal of the reality of apartheid. Deserves more recognition. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Panic (Thomas Mogotlane) is a low-rent hustler who works the crime-ridden streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, with only his own interests in mind. However, as the world around him shifts with the burgeoning anti-apartheid efforts, Panic finds himself being irreversibly pulled into the fray and his community. Now, Panic must choose between his selfish goals and becoming a part of a larger movement to fight the racism that has controlled his country for so long.
      Director
      Oliver Schmitz
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Runtime
      1h 45m