The Heart Is a Muscle
By Kit Macdonald
The final screening of Filmoteca's wonderful 2026 Wallay! African cinema festival, The Heart Is a Muscle is a bruising, compassionate drama from the South African director Imran Hamdulay, set amid the heat and tension of contemporary Cape Town. The film follows Ryan, a reformed gangster trying to build a stable life while confronting the damage left by the violence and poverty passed along from one generation to the next. When a young boy briefly goes missing during a community celebration, old conflicts and suspicions resurface, pushing Ryan towards a reckoning with his past and himself.
Hamdulay balances social realism with moments of tenderness and crafts a tale that is interested in exploring the emotional aftermath a life of crime leaves behind, rather than the crime itself. The result is a powerful portrait of wounded men struggling to imagine a gentler future.