Synopsis
Eastern Cape, South Africa. A lonely factory worker, Xolani, takes time off his job to assist during an annual Xhosa circumcision initiation into manhood. In a remote mountain camp that is off limits to women, young men, painted in white ochre, recuperate as they learn the masculine codes of their culture. In this environment of machismo and aggression, Xolani cares for a defiant initiate from Johannesburg, Kwanda, who quickly learns Xolani's best kept secret, that he is in love with another man.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Nakhane TouréXolani
- Bongile MantsaiVija
- Niza Jay NcoyiniKwanda
- Thobani MseleniBabalo
- Gamelihle BovanaInitiate
- Halalisani Bradley CebekhuluInitiate
- Inga QwedeInitiate
- Sibabalwe NgqayanaInitiate
- Siphosethu NgcetaneInitiate
Recommandations
- 100
The New York Times
Mr. Trengove shoots the film in intimate wide-screen, getting in close to the performers as their characters tamp down explosive feelings, often letting the spectacular landscapes behind them break down into soft-focus abstractions. His direction is perfectly judged up to and including the shudder-inducing ending. - 88
RogerEbert.com
The result is a dark and stirring variation on the standard coming-of-age narrative that, much like its central characters, does not follow the path one might expect. - 83
The Playlist
Wherever you may fall on its ending, The Wound is a movie worth watching for myriad reasons, not least of which is the fact that it’s as emotionally and dramatically compelling as any American indie to come out this year. Seek it out and see it on the big screen. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
John Trengove’s first feature takes real chances, delivering a troubling portrait of the collision between communal and personal identity. - 80
Variety
The Wound is rich in such small, observational details. - 80
Screen Daily
The initial promise of a South African Brokeback Mountain broadens into a measured consideration of class, race, self-loathing and self-assertion in a compact but pleasingly complex drama. - 75
The A.V. Club
The Wound excels so long as it hangs back a bit, watching Xolani struggle to project the authority that his role demands, despite being acutely aware of his own vulnerability. - 75
IndieWire
The plot ends in a place that feels honest and true, but it gets lost in a kind of narrative no-man’s land on its way there.
