Brimming with sex and violence, The Wound is an exploration of tradition and sexuality set amid South Africa’s Xhosa culture. Every year, Xhosa young men are brought to the mountains of the Eastern Cape to participate in an ancient coming-of-age ritual. Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by openly gay musician Nakhane Touré), is assigned to guide Kwanda, a city boy from Johannesburg sent by his father to be toughened up, through this rite of passage into manhood. As Kwanda defiantly negotiates his queer identity within this masculine environment, he quickly recognizes the nature of Xolani’s relationship with fellow guide Vija. The three men commence a dangerous dance with each other and their own desires and, soon, the threat of exposure elevates the tension to breaking point.
Mar 27: Intro by curator Fegor Obuwoma
In an examination of the forced rigidity of masculinity in society, we follow several boys accompanied by men from their community through a fading practice of initiation into manhood. Inxeba considers queer modes of survival hidden between the roles of conformity and rebellion. Presenting the interrelations between queerness, land, the importance of tradition, belonging, and love, Inxeba is a portrait of existing for another and finding meaning there, even when called to sacrifice all.
Fegor Obuwoma, …to glimpse: African Cinema Now! Curator
A stunning debut from South African filmmaker John Trengove.
Leah Pickett, Chicago Reader
The film surges. Then it simmers. [It] may not please everyone, but it certainly leaves you shaking.
Donald Clarke, Irish Times
Media Partner
Community Partner
John Trengove
Nakhane Touré, Bongile Mantsai, Niza Jay Ncoyini, Thobani Mseleni
South Africa/Germany/Netherlands/France
2017
In Xhosa with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Also Playing
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Left-Handed Girl
Co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Anora), Shi-Ching Tsou's heartwarming solo feature debut follows a single mom in Taipei who is too consumed with her noodle stand to keep tabs on her five-year-old daughter's burgeoning shoplifting habit.
The Librarians
Dispatches from the front line of America's culture wars (and ours too): librarians speak out about the war against ideas, history, freedom of expression and sexual identity, a campaign in which an open mind is the ultimate enemy.
Dawn Pemberton Sings Aretha + Amazing Grace Film Screening
These dates are going to knock your socks off: one of the all-time great concert films, Aretha Franklin performing at the New Bethel Baptist Church in 1972, and Canada's own Queen of Soul, Dawn Pemberton, performing live in Aretha's honour.
Caravaggio
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light not only on Caravaggio's paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.