‘Inxeba’ may have been banned by some cinemas in South Africa but the controversial film is headed for a global release on Netflix!
The Wound (isiXhosa: Inxeba) is a 2017 South African drama film directed by John Trengove. It was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the Panorama section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. The film opened the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival 2017. It was selected as the South African entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but is currently being slated by many South Africans who haven’t even seen it.
The movie opened in South Africa over the past weekend but many cinemas were forced to shut it down and not screen it due to protests and threats.
The Wound’s opening weekend was hampered when 16 cinemas, most of them in the Eastern Cape and Cape Town, were unable to screen the film. However, that was not enough to stop the film from doing well in the local box office as it managed to take home just more than R600 000 with just 19 screens instead of the usual 55 screens.
Producers of the controversial local film have responded to threats which led to several screenings of the movie being cancelled, by laying a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission and the Commission for Gender Equality.
The film, which tells the story of a gay factory worker who travels to the rural Eastern Cape to oversee the Xhosa initiation process only to have his secret discovered by one defiant initiate, once again had Mzansi talking when several cinemas showing the film had to postpone screenings due to threats of violence.
But who needs cinemas when you have a screen with an internet connection.
The controversial movie is now available for streaming on the world’s largest series, documentaries, and movies-on-demand service, Netflix. The movie is currently streaming in most countries where Netflix is available around the world and it is reported that South African viewers will get to see the film on 12 February 2018 on the streaming service.
Watch the full trailer below:
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