Searching for Sugar Man

A remarkable Oscar-winning music documentary about how an American artist became a resistance hero during apartheid, without knowing it.

By chance, music by the American musician Rodriguez found its way to South Africa, a country that had practised a harsh, discriminatory apartheid policy since the 1940s. This politically radical musician released two albums in the early 1970s that struck a chord with a large group of frustrated white South Africans. Bootleg copies circulated, and eventually the records were released on vinyl and sold by the thousands. Yet people knew almost nothing about him, apart from the rumour that he had died in dramatic circumstances.

In the 1990s, as South Africa changed political course and the internet made it easier to search for information and make contact, two men began investigating Rodriguez’s story. Their search led them to Detroit and a construction worker of Mexican background, who was still alive and had no idea of his status in South Africa.

Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar-winning documentary unravels this incredible story and lets us witness the moving moment when Rodriguez performs his very first concert for his South African fans.