iBhokhwe

Unkwaluka is a traditional male circumcision ritual practiced by the Xhosa speaking people of South Africa. Boys between 16 and 19 years old are taken up a mountain by their elders where they are circumcised and kept in a complete isolation for a three week healing period. During this time they are inducted into the code of manhood caregivers who have themselves been through the initiation process. A teenage Xhosa initiate recuperates in a mountain hut after this ritual circumcision. When he learns that his elders have abandoned him, with no one but his young brother to care for him. Caught between observing the sacred protocols of his cultura and the secret of his gay sexuality, the initiate’s panic turns to desparation. (Madrid International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival)