Ross Devenish – MRQE

Goal! World Cup 1966

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

This entertaining documentary of the World Cup Soccer tournament of 1966 follows the 15 countries competing for the sport’s most coveted prize. Nigel Patrick narrates, with commentary provided by Brian Glanville. The executive producer spent $336,000 on the production and used 117 cameras to record nearly 48 hours worth of action. Four editors were employed to created the final 108-minute feature.

Boesman and Lena

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A portrait of a marginalised couple evicted by forced removal in apartheid South Africa.

A Chip of Glass Ruby

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A Johannesburg woman risks everything to aid blacks and Indians facing eviction because of apartheid laws.

Marigolds in August

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Marigolds in August was written by Athol Fugard, who in the early 1980s was South Africa’s most celebrated playwright. Fugard’s intense political opinions were enough for the USSR to object to Marigolds being shown in the 1980 Berlin Festival, but the objections were dropped when it was learned that Fugard had already built up a strong fan following in Eastern Europe (for various reasons, the film was not released in the US until 1984). Winston Ntshona stars as a black South African gardener who travels by foot into the white community looking for a job. Upon arriving, Ntshona discovers that another black, John Kani, may have been hired for that job. Ntshoa ruins the chances for himself and Kani by accusing the other man of planning a theft. Both men are eventually hired by a fellow outcast, a white poacher (played by Anthol Fugard himself). The message would seem to be that if the have-nots of the world stick together, it matters little how badly they’re treated by the “haves.”