Moffie: not all things about the '80s are nostalgic
02 Mar 2021. Photos courtesy of publicist.

Moffie is a new film about apartheid, set in 1981. The term ‘moffie’ is Afrikaaner for ‘faggot.' Based on Andre Carl van der Merwe’s autobiographical novel, it tells the story of a 16-year-old white boy named Nicholas. Not only does he not want to serve in the South African army, risking his life to defend the northern border against those horrible Angolians, he is also gay. 

The movie starts with his family sending him off to do his patriotic duty. He’s loaded onto a filthy train and brought to boot camp, where we get the first of several hot scenes, this one in the shower and set to music originally used in Barry Lyndon. It would be an understatement to say that the movie is full of hot young dudes. But how accurate is a depiction of boot camp where the recruits get to keep their civilian haircuts? 

There’s a horrible scene where two guys accused of having sex with each other are displayed in front of the troops covered in cuts and bruises, and there are shock moments like when some kid blows his head off with a rifle in front of his fellow recruits, who at the time are all shiny and bare chested from playing volleyball. I didn’t know where to look. 

There’s a flashback where Nicholas is about 10 and in the change room of a public pool. Some asshole catches him spying on another boy taking a shower and makes a big deal out of it. Little Nicholas should have just screamed “Rape!” His disgraced parents drag him home in shame, instead of threatening a lawsuit and a social media smear campaign. Once again, we’ve come a long way.

It gets worse. The young soldiers finally arrive at the border and have the unenviable task of pointing loaded rifles into the faces of innocent tribespeople. Apartheid was a policy that humiliated everyone, including those upholding it. When Nicholas finally sees battle, and realizes he has just shot some poor black guy for no real reason, he can’t help but just stare into the void. 

God, we are so lucky to be born now instead of then. Maybe movies like Moffie are meant to make privileged, pampered, easily-triggered North Americans realize how good we got it. As horrible as it looks to us now, all this was happening just 40 years ago.