Mark Your Calendars: Joburg Film Festival is back with big local movies

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The eighth Joburg Film Festival, running March 3–8 in Johannesburg cinemas, will open and close with two highly anticipated South African films.

The festival launches on 3 March with Zamo Mkhwanazi’s debut feature, Laundry (Uhlanjululo), fresh from its acclaimed international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

However, the opening night is invitation-only, but the second screening is open to the public on 7 March at 15:15 at NuMetro Cine 1 in Hyde Park, Sandton.

The festival will close with another South African premiere of The Trek, a bold western-horror by first-time director MeekaeeI Adam, screening at 16:30 on 8 March at Theatre On The Square, Sandton. 

South African filmmakers are telling world-class stories rooted in local history, myth, and memory with global resonance.

“Both Laundry and The Trek expertly balance texture and technique, navigating their subjects with real confidence,” Joburg Film Festival Curator Nhlanhla Ndaba said.

“These are stories rooted in uniquely South African contexts that invite audiences to think, feel, and actively journey with the characters.” 

Laundry (Uhlanjululo), praised by Variety for its 1990s historical drama gloss, is a deeply personal film exploring apartheid’s lasting impact via family, labour, and lost inheritance.

Set in the 1960s in Johannesburg, the film follows a Black family operating a laundry business under rare and fragile permission to trade in a whites-only district.

Patriarch Enoch (played by Siyabonga Shibe) struggles to secure his family’s fragile existence, creating conflict between their need for survival and self-expression, especially concerning his son’s (played by Ntobeko Sishi) artistic aspirations.

When the threat of imprisonment emerges, the family is forced to reckon with the cost of endurance in a system designed to exclude them. 

The film features a strong cast, including Bukamina Cebekhulu, Tracy September, and Justin Strydom.

Mkhwanazi draws directly from her own family history.

“My grandfather had a laundry, and when apartheid came in, he lost his business. That loss was always there in the back of my mind as a place where my intergenerational wealth was taken. I knew it had to be my first film,” she reckoned.

Mkhwanazi began her career as a scriptwriter on Isidingo, and her third short film, Gallo Rojo, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight in 2016, marking her early arrival on the international stage. 

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Closing the festival, The Trek plunges audiences into the vast and unforgiving Kalahari Desert in 1846, following a Dutch-Afrikaans family and their British benefactor on a perilous journey to claim land.

Guided by a mysterious Khoen traveller, the expedition slowly fractures under the weight of hunger, exhaustion, and mistrust. 

Hovering over the journey are two spectral figures drawn from Southern African folklore, silent witnesses as the group’s fragile social order begins to collapse. 

The Trek reinterprets the Western survival film with a Southern African perspective, fusing historical realism and mythic storytelling to challenge colonial narratives while utilising the power of genre cinema.

Film Festival reflection

Adam earned a Best First-Time Director nomination at the Directors Guild of South Africa’s Creatives Awards for his film, featuring Morné Visser, Maurice Carped, Camilla Borghesani, Trix Vivier, and Rob van Vuuren.

Nomsa Philiso, spokesperson for MultiChoice Group, added, “These selections and the festival programme as a whole reflect our deep commitment to the audience experience.”

Phliso said from the outset, their partnership with the JFF has been about democratising access to bold, meaningful cinema.

“This year, we are proud to showcase two exceptional South African films that are as entertaining as they are illuminating.”