Country guide · Africa
1 Essential Film from Botswana + 4 Movies Set in or About Botswana
Botswana on the atlas: the strongest films of its own cinema, and the films the rest of the world has set there. Every list is curated and ranked by hand.
1 Essential Film from Botswana
Native cinema in Botswana’s own creative voice — the passport route that earns visas and citizenship.
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1. Ngaka
An early Botswana film centered on a traditional healer — a ngaka — and the beliefs and community that surround him. A rare glimpse of the country's fledgling cinema.
Curator’s note: Documented as the first Setswana feature and a foundational work of Botswana cinema.
4 Movies Set in or About Botswana
Outside filmmakers looking toward Botswana: optional perspectives for a wider journey.
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1. The Gods Must Be Crazy
When a Coca-Cola bottle falls from a passing plane into the Kalahari, a Bushman who has never seen such a thing sets out to return the strange object to the gods, his gentle odyssey crossing paths with bumbling scientists and revolutionaries. A beloved slapstick comedy.
Curator’s note: The Gods Must Be Crazy was retained as one of the strongest foreign-authored films whose setting, history, people, or sustained subject materially engages with Botswana.
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2. Into the Okavango
This National Geographic documentary follows a team of explorers on a grueling months-long expedition tracing the rivers that feed Botswana's Okavango Delta, from the highlands of Angola into the heart of one of Africa's great wildernesses, in a bid to protect it.
Curator’s note: Into the Okavango was retained as one of the strongest foreign-authored films whose setting, history, people, or sustained subject materially engages with Botswana.
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3. A United Kingdom
Based on a true story, the heir to the throne of what is now Botswana falls in love with a white London clerk in the late 1940s, and their marriage ignites a political firestorm across Britain, the empire, and southern Africa. A stirring historical romance.
Curator’s note: A United Kingdom was retained as one of the strongest foreign-authored films whose setting, history, people, or sustained subject materially engages with Botswana.
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4. N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman
Spanning decades, this landmark documentary tells the life story of N!ai, a Ju/'hoan woman of the Kalahari, and through her the wrenching transformation of her people from a life on the land to the margins of a changing world.
Curator’s note: N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman was retained as one of the strongest foreign-authored films whose setting, history, people, or sustained subject materially engages with Botswana.
Selected by the FilmsAroundThe.World editorial desk
Lists are ranked for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and depth of engagement with place. Native selections require a verified creative relationship to the country; souvenir selections require an outside creative lead and a country-centered story. Read the methodology.
Editorial review: 2026-07-14
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