Two pedigreed dramas. Two intense monster movies. Those are your choices when it comes to new releases at South African cinemas this week.
In addition to this quartet (profiled below), you’ll also be able to check out the National Theatre Live recording of Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller; Verdi’s Macbeth, as performed by the Metropolitan Opera; the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour; and the Throwback return of prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Honestly, we never thought that we’d be getting a cinema release for sci-fi action thriller Hope in South Africa, but here we are. Directed by Na Hong-jin, the Korean epic premiered to acclaim (and a Palme d’Or nomination) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, scoring a global release as a result. In the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and officer Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon) are called to investigate a mysterious unstoppable creature wreaking havoc, only to realise events are tied to something extra-terrestrial. Also with Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender.
Historical film fans will want to prioritise Pressure this week. Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott head up the cast of this World War II drama which tells the little-known story of the preparations that went into the D-Day landings, and how critical weather reports were. In the tense 72 hours before the Allies’ coordinated takeback of Europe, supreme commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower struggles to accept the findings of chief meteorological officer Captain James Stagg, resulting in an impossible choice: launch in a storm and massively disadvantage your forces, or delay and risk losing the war altogether.
Tonight, on E! If you thought Anaconda had cornered the market on killer snake movies, Beware Boiúna is here to correct you. Tonally a more serious horror film, the story centres on a humanitarian mission deep into the Amazon jungle, where a band of doctors encounter the giant mythological serpent associated with the region. Suddenly, roles are reversed as Boiúna decides who lives and dies, and the doctors find themselves in a desperate fight to survive. Starring Kiana Madeira, Jessica Rothe and Logan Marshall-Green
On the local drama front this week, there’s Al Wat Ek Weet, screening in Afrikaans with English subtitles. Based on the novel by Marita van der Vyver, this Silwerskermfees screener centres on seventeen-year-old Gabriel Lombard (Jonan Mouton), whose life is uprooted when his mother dies in a car accident and his father gives up on life. Sent to live in a cramped Woodstock house with his aunt Lotta (Zenobia Kloppers) and grandmother Lenie (June van Merch), Gabriel’s attempts to bury his grief find release in an overactive imagination that reflects in magical realist scenes. Directed by Devon Delmar and Jason Jacobs.