Shield and Spear

Twenty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa remains a country brimming with contradictions, threatened by corruption, violence and inequality. Director Petter Ringbom offers up an energetic snapshot of contemporary South Africa through a kaleidoscope view of artists living and working there, all finding their way through difficult realities in original ways. Condemned by the African National Congress for his depiction of a very exposed Jacob Zuma, subversive pop artist Brett Murphy has retreated to a safe house, while photographer Zanele Muholi earned her own attack from the culture minister for her portraits of the LGBT community. A number of other musicians and designers bear witness to the challenge of working within a country which has so far spectacularly failed to uphold its idealistic bill of rights. But like many troubled lands, this ultimately conservative country is bursting with artistic creativity, evidenced here in an exuberant, thought-provoking film.