The Coloured Curtain

The year is 1972, the beginning of the end of the golden years of apartheid in South Africa. Nineteen-year-old John Matlala leaves the citrus farm where his family has lived for generations and travels to Johannesburg to seek his fortune. The draconian discriminatory laws imposed on the black people of the country frustrate John's attempts to improve his life and in desperation he turns to crime. Together with his street-wise partner Jimson, the two young men move from petty thievery to armed robbery and murder. Herman Malan, a wealthy white Afrikaner with a propensity for gambling finds his business on the verge of bankruptcy and when the three men's paths cross during a failed armed robbery, John is the only survivor. He flees to the sprawling metropolis of Soweto but is eventually forced to leave. What follows is a series of events that result in John sacrificing his life to save the lives of the parents of the man he murdered during the failed armed robbery.