This kooky comedy from South Africa follows Max, a Candide-like innocent who travels from the country to Johannesburg to become a doctor. Accidentally given the family’s sacred goat to bring to his ne’er-do-well Uncle Norman, Max finds himself (and the goat) mired in his uncle’s debts to an unscrupulous crime lord. And Uncle Norman discovers that Max, the most gifted professional mourner in the country, could be a profitable source of badly-needed cash. Filmmaker Teddy Mattera creates a rollicking mix of farce and folly in this contemporary tale.
California Film Institute.

 
I admit I was skeptical. After all, Max and Mona is a comedy about a guy who cries at funerals for money. The supporting cast includes a sacred goat, a transvestite mortician and a stunted gangster named Razor. And it’s a low-budget South African film by a first-time director. But Max and Mona is a funny and profound South African fable, and my favourite South African film so far.
Kevin Kriedemann, iafrica.com.