Property of the State

Boys in the army, gay or straight, is a sensitive subject - unformed men conscripted, at a tender age, into an anonymous war machine with conformity and killing as its objectives. Kraak's film explores the complex space that was the South African military for gay men, at once erotic and hostile. It includes heart-wrenching testimony from aversion therapy survivor Mike Smith, Greig Coetzee's fabulously funny performance of Afrikaans barracks queen Rhur Labuschagne, and interviews with now prominent ex-troopies such as Matthew Krouse, Damon Galgut and Sir Antony Sher. Judge Edwin Cameron has praised the film's rich visual and emotional colourings, its unhysterical pace and tone, its intellectual and emotional depth, interspersed with considerable verve and humour'.