Artist-turned-filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela grew up in South Africa during apartheid but didn’t know it was happening until it was over.

Set in past and present South Africa, Milisuthando is a poetic coming-of-age personal essay documentary about what it means to become human in the context of race. Told through the memories of its writer-director, a millennial Black woman who only began reckoning with apartheid after its end, Bongela takes us on a searching journey, interrogating her youth spent variously in the all-Black Xhosa homeland of Transkei, London and the new South Africa, her adult life in Johannesburg, and her slivered sense of identity, driven by her thoughtful narrative voice and a cast of her family, friends, foes and historical figures. 

Spanning 30 years in a non-linear style and utilising some extraordinary archive footage, this inventive film is a meditation on the sociological concept of race, a poetic reflection on a nation born from the violence and inhumanity of apartheid, and a deeply affecting look at its lingering effects on South Africa’s national psyche. 

Part of SNAPSHOT, T A P E Collective’s programme capturing and celebrating the multi-faceted experiences of Black girlhood. Read more about SNAPSHOT.