A stunning debut from South African filmmaker John Trengove,

| Sep 25, 2018

A confident debut that questions conservatism in African society, The Wound is lifted by its raw portrayal of three men struggling with their identities, and nearly held down by its last minute attempt at melodrama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2018

The film surges. Then it simmers. The final terrible reversal may not please everyone, but it certainly leaves you shaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 2, 2018

This is an incredible film. Moving, challenging and thought-provoking narrative, quite simply unmissable.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 30, 2018

John Trengove's tough, beguiling debut looks at what happens when queerness throws a wrench in the rusty machinery of traditional masculinity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 29, 2018

Necessary, deft and ultimately shocking. This is a beautifully hewn, brave piece of filmmaking that asks difficult, searching questions that will haunt you long after the credits roll.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2018

A flawless exploration of male identity [...] featuring some standout performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 26, 2018

"Coming of age" is usually a syrupy Hollywood genre, and it's bracing to find it given such an unsentimental expression - and to see that it applies not only to adolescents, but to adults, too.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 26, 2018

Touré shines as the repressed Xolani in a film that refuses to deal with the purely superficial.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 26, 2018

But this Xhosa take on Brokeback Mountain still makes for a fascinating reflection on African masculinity, even if it hits predictable dramatic beats.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2018

The ongoing taboo around homosexuality in South Africa gives a fierce charge to the story, and Trengrove never settles for easy ways out.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 25, 2018

Its fraught sexual politics apart, The Wound is fascinating in its insights into Xhosa culture.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2018

It's a shame director John Trengove, who also scripted, was a party to this kind of infuriatingly undisciplined camerawork, as it makes watching The Wound a chore.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 17, 2018

It's a gripping movie on its own dramatic terms: enigmatic, visually striking, culturally sympathetic and pungently fresh.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 17, 2018

If you're going to make a movie about the complicated ties between sexuality and masculinity, it helps to set it against the backdrop of a culture that still equates male excellence with procreation and providing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 15, 2017

John Trengrove's deeply probing debut feature is less interested in moral judgments than in the dynamic between strength and weakness.

| Original Score: B | Aug 16, 2017

A dark and stirring variation on the standard coming-of-age narrative that, much like its central characters, does not follow the path one might expect.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 16, 2017

This is a movie that offers a glimpse into a seldom-seen world, and it is also a character study that looks deeply into the behavior of three very different men who might have loved each other under different circumstances.

| Aug 15, 2017

Mr. Trengove shoots the film in intimate wide-screen, getting in close to the performers as their characters tamp down explosive feelings, often letting the spectacular landscapes behind them break down into soft-focus abstractions.

| Aug 15, 2017

[Tour's] superb, deeply internalized performance manages to suggest wellsprings of longing concealed by a scrim of perpetual wariness.

| Original Score: B | Aug 15, 2017