IN ‘MOFFIE,' BRUTAL INTOLERANCE IN '80S SOUTH AFRICA

The main character of Oliver Hermanus’ shattering “Moffie,” set in 1981 South Africa, is a handsome, white 18-year-old. In the country’s system of apartheid, he is a member of the ruling class, but he’s no insider.

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Shy, timid and closeted, Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) is conscripted into the army as part of regulated military service for white males over 16. There, the film’s title — an Afrikaans’ anti-gay slur — isn’t directed at him but it’s hurled all around — an ever-present threat of ostracism and abuse. In brutal basic training, it’s as if bullets are already flying perilously close to Nicholas.

But “Moffie,” which opens in theaters and on-demand Friday, is more than a coming-of-age story about a young gay man in an unprogressive society. In following Nicholas into basic training, the film wades into the dark heart of apartheid and a cauldron of destructive masculinity. There, young men are indoctrinated, through the barks of drill sergeants, to an ideology of fear, oppression and nationalism endemic to 1980s South Africa but also to most any other place or era. Nicholas has been conscripted into an army of intolerance, one that sees him as an enemy.