Friends

Set in South Africa just before the release of Nelson Mandela, this film focuses on three representative women who meet at university: Sophie (Fox) comes from an affluent white Johannesburg suburb; Thoko (Kente) is a Zulu teacher; Aninka (Burgers) a working-class Afrikaner. They live together, defiantly, but their friendship is tested when Sophie, an anti-apartheid activist, plants a bomb, with bloody consequences, This fiction film, by a South African-born documentary-maker, rather labours its points. Powerful prison scenes, though, and convincing snapshots of Johannesburg social life.