Canary

In 1985 the eighteen-year-old Johan Niemand is called up and taken into the South African army choir, the group known as the Canaries. The choir tours the country town by town, entertaining people while shoring up support for the war effort and for the shared cause of church and state. On tour Johan falls in love with another member, and from that point he is questioning his religion, his patriotism and his sexuality at once, while his passion for music puts him directly at odds with his commanding officers. Christiaan Olwagen keeps the last years of apartheid, compulsory military service and the pressure applied through law and church all in the same frame, hiding none of them behind the others. The filmmakers say it draws on what they lived through. Schalk Bezuidenhout leads, the language is Afrikaans, and it opened on 19 October 2018.