Drum

Drum depicts Sophiatown in the 1950s, a vibrant place full of music, love, and laughter, and the breeding ground for resistance. Set in Johannesburg during the era of Big Band Jazz, this film captures a period when a generation of courageous South African writers, critics, musicians, and journalists emerged, intermingling with Shebeen queens, and tsotsismin loud shirts and wide brimmed hats.

The popular Drum magazine is the platform for the film, led by Mr. Drum Henry Nxumalo; a fun loving, hard-drinking philanderer and hotshot journalist. As Nxumalo gets swept up in the movement to challenge apartheid, his enterprising reportage leads him into direct conflict with South Africa's apartheid machinery, with fatal consequences.