Mother City

• Pearlie Joubert, Miki Redelinghuys
• 113 min
• South Africa
• 2024

An intimate and compelling portrait of a person and a movement fighting to make the global tourist hotspot Cape Town a city where everyone belongs.
An inspiring yet sobering account of democracy in Cape Town, where little has changed since 1994. Today’s spatial apartheid—driven by gentrification and a deliberate lack of affordable housing—is justified by calls for “law and order.” Nkosikhona Swartbooi and his fellow activists in Reclaim the City, dedicating their lives to change, demonstrate through words and actions that without an ethical compass, neither can prevail. Their fight, rooted in solidarity, joy, and determination, stands in stark contrast to the authorities’ formalistic and, when that fails, violent resistance to true justice and democracy.


- Katarina Hedrén

• Motstånd
• Dokumentär
• Stad
• Samhälle