Underplayed Gems

Last Grave at Dimbaza (1974)

Last Grave at Dimbaza poster
Original title
The Last Grave at Dimbaza
Directed by
Nana Mahome, Chris Curling, Pascoe Macfarlane
Genre
documentary
Country
United Kingdom, South Africa
Runtime
55 min
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This documentary shows the huge gap in living conditions between white and black people in South Africa under apartheid. It was filmed secretly because of the country's strict laws, and it helped expose the government's brutal resettlement policy to the world.

documentaryeye-openingsoberingeducationallow-keystraightforwardfact-basedlow-budget

What happens

Last Grave at Dimbaza is a 1974 documentary film made by South African and young British film-makers who wanted to document Apartheid in South Africa. The same team had previously made the film End of the Dialogue. Because of South Africa's restrictive laws governing what could be photographed, the film had to be shot clandestinely and smuggled out of the country, where it was edited and released in England. The film won the Grand Prix award for Short Film at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1975. The film highlighted the disparity in living conditions between white and black people in South Africa, revealing that this has been enshrined in numerous South African laws. While white people enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world, the lives of black people were carefully circumscribed so that they enjoyed few rights with no legal recourse. Most lived in poverty. When the film was released, it resulted in international condemnation of the Apartheid government's brutal resettlement policy, which had not been widely known outside of South Africa prior to that point. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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