TIFF 2025: Mkhwanazi’s ‘Laundry’ explores apartheid-era struggles

By Bhargav Acharya

South African director Zamo Mkhwanazi has no interest in giving a history lesson on apartheid when the audience catches her film “Laundry” at the Toronto International Film Festival – instead, she wants them to understand the impossible choices, limitations and the threats Black people faced under a brutal regime.

Set in 1968, Mkhwanazi’s debut feature film follows the story of a Black family’s struggle between dreams, duty and loyalty as they navigate life in apartheid South Africa while running a laundry business in a whites-only neighborhood.

The movie revolves around the character of Khuthala Sithole, a rebellious young man who dreams of traveling the world as a musician alongside a local singer, who also happens to be his father’s mistress.

“The story is really about the tension between the coming of age … of a young musician and living in a world where he’s not really allowed