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Cape Town - The Hollywood Reporter is calling it "beautiful".
Variety praised it as "a director's triumph".
When you watch the official trailer for South Africa's new war drama Moffie, you too will understand why film critics across the globe are falling madly in love with it.
The goose bump-inducing trailer, set to the song Sugar Man, is a stunning piece of cinema in itself, and is being released first on Channel24.
It was a 25th hour decision by director Oliver Hermanus to acquire the rights to the song, and include it as part of the film.
With only a ten-day window before the film had to be finished, Oliver reached out to music producer Ben Ludik. He asked Ludik to imagine recreating Sugar Man with a female vocalist as a haunting anthem to end the film.
"I am so excited about sharing our new trailer with the South African audience," says Oliver.
"It has been such an amazing opportunity to include Rodriguez’s Sugar Man in the film and then to have Ben Ludik rework it for our trailer is the cherry on top. I love what he has done with the song and I hope audiences will come and experience the extraordinary work by the group of brilliant South Africans – actors, designers, photographers, composers, producers and crew - who made this film."
He added: "Our new trailer is a testament to South African cinema and cinema makers taking on the world."
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
Under the direction of Oliver the film is putting the spotlight firmly on the young men who were indoctrinated and brutalised during their compulsory military service by the former apartheid regime in the 1980s.
"The movie draws its title from a vicious Afrikaans insult used to denigrate gay men, but which Hermanus said is equally deployed as a 'weapon to shame any man for being weak, effeminate or not good enough'," writes AP about Moffie.
The film, produced by South African-born producer Eric Abraham and Jack Sidey of Portobello Productions, was made in association with Oliver’s Cape Town-based Penzance Films with the support of the Department of Trade and Industry South Africa.
Moffie, based on the book by Andre-Carl van der Merwe, stars Kai Luke Brummer in his first film lead performance as well as a cast of sixteen young actors, many of whom make their feature film debut including Matthew Vey and Rikus Terblanche.
South Africans can watch Moffie in local cinemas from 13 March 2020.
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