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GOOD MADAM

Jenna Cato Bass | South Africa | English, Xhosa | 2021 | 92 MIN

In this brilliant riff on folk horror from South Africa, a woman finds a house haunted by the legacy of oppression when she moves into the estate where her mother works as a maid.

Forced out of the home she shared with her recently deceased grandmother, single mom Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa) sees no other option than to move in with her estranged mother Mavis (Nosipho Mtebe), a live-in servant at an estate in an affluent Cape Town suburb. But something is not quite right in the sprawling, creepy house. Mavis is disconcertingly enthralled by the “Madam,” a sickly and mostly bedridden white woman who’s hardly seen even though her oppressive presence is felt in every corner of the home. Tsidi rejects her mother’s servility but finds that a threatening presence in the house seems sinisterly determined to sap her of her freedom. Director Jenna Cato Bass (FLATLAND, PFF28) and Babalwa Baartman wrote GOOD MADAM’s script in collaboration with the film’s actors, drawing on generational memories of apartheid-era domestic servitude and the continuing realities of systemic racism. Though Bass’s scares are expertly deployed, the ugly truth lying behind the film’s nightmarish vision of society is just as terrifying.

CAST: Chumisa Cosa, Nosipho Mtebe, Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya, Sanda Shandu


All sales are final. Admission is not guaranteed after scheduled start time.

CLICK HERE to return to the complete 30th Philadelphia Film Festival schedule.


A Note on Health & Safety

As of September 1, PFS will require masking as well as proof of vaccination at the Film Center & PFS Bourse.

Acceptable forms of proof of vaccination include your CDC record/card or a picture of the vaccination card along with photo I.D.

Masks are required at all times except when eating or drinking in the theater. Children under the age of 12 are currently exempt from this requirement.

Click HERE for all of our health and safety regulations.


Screenings at the Drive-In are ONLINE SALES ONLY. Operations will be check-in only, no box office sales at all will be conducted on site.

Tickets can be purchase up to the published showtime online.

Please make sure to have a confirmation email and/or printed ticket with you for check in.

All screenings are rain or shine unless weather is determined to be too dangerous by management.

The PFS Drive-In will strictly adhere to City-approved safety guidelines for drive-ins – click HERE to read the full list of approved guidelines & Restrictions.

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Masking is now optional at the Film Center & PFS Bourse, proof of vaccination is still required. Click HERE for more info!