Shortlisted for 2018 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and winner of Best First Feature at London Film Festival, 'The Wound' is an exploration of tradition and sexuality set amid South Africa’s Xhosa culture.
Every year, the tribe's young men are brought to the mountains of the Eastern Cape to participate in an ancient coming-of-age ritual. Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by openly gay musician Nakhane Toure), is assigned to guide Kwanda, a city boy from Johannesburg sent by his father to be toughened up, through this rite of passage into manhood.
As Kwanda defiantly negotiates his queer identity within this masculine environment, he quickly recognises the nature of Xolani's relationship with fellow guide Vija. The three men commence a dangerous dance with each other and their own desires and, soon, the threat of exposure elevates the tension to breaking point.
★★★★ "Touré shines as the repressed Xolani in a film that refuses to deal with the purely superficial" - Joe Boden, Little White Lies
★★★★ "Necessary, deft and ultimately shocking" - Jimi Famurewa, Empire
★★★★ "A flawless exploration of male identity" - Kevin Maher, The Times
★★★★ "Intimate and boldly transgressive" - Peter Bradshaw's Film of the Week, The Guardian
15
84 minutes
2018
Gay, Drama
South Africa
Afrikaans, English, Xhosa
English
Peccadillo Pictures