Elaine Proctor’s follow up to her acclaimed On The Wire is further prooof of her outstanding talent. Focusing on the friendship between three women – Sophie (Kerry Fox), a white English speaking activist, Thoko (Dambisa Kente), a black teacher, and Annika, an Afrikaans archeologist – Proctor weaves a narrative that paints a protrait of Johannesburg in the turmoil of the eighties. Her story of three women who think they know each other but come to realise they don’t has the furious immediacy and tension of a conflict we all know is still unresolved, and her choice of style and tempo is fittingly harsh to a clash of cultures. In Proctor’s words Friends is definitely not in the anti-apartheid genre. It’s not even ‘progressive’ necessarily. Undoubtedly it will spark up controversy from all sides, but it has already made a contribution – via fiction – to the deeper understanding of people in conflict, earning her a special mention by the Camera D’Or Jury at the Cannes Film Festival