X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Vaya

Three people board a Johannesburg-bound train. Strangers, each on their own mission with a simple task to complete and in search of family to help them. But when they are betrayed by the very people whose protection they sought, they find themselves trapped in the city, invisible and alone. Vaya interweaves three separate plots that intersect and intertwine in a gripping, deeply moving, and often funny narrative about struggling for survival and dignity in the city. In the first story, a rural man has been promised a job by his big-city cousin; his earnings will allow him to pay lobola back home, which will change his life forever. He's excited; his cousin is an important man whose patronage the village has relied on for many years. To work for him is a great honour. But on arrival he discovers that the job is not quite what he thought: He is required to kill his cousin's rival. In the second story, a young man is sent to Jozi to reclaim his father's body, but he discovers that the body has already been claimed: his father's hitherto-unknown 'city family' has taken it and they are not giving it back. The young man must find a way to return the body to his rural home or risk the family reputation forever. In the third story, a young woman takes her aunt's young daughter to Joburg to live with her mother for the first time, but she has her own plans to dump the child and finally escape the boredom of rural life to explore her own dreams and ambitions in the city. She soon discovers that her aunt is not who she thought she was: She runs a shebeen and lives with an extremely devious gangster who supports her. She is unable to take care of herself, let alone a small child. The young woman must now choose between her own dreams or saving the child and ruining everything.

Loading. Please wait...

Content not available in your region? ExpressVPN can help you stay connected wherever you are. Get 4 extra months FREE with TV Guide's exclusive offer.

Cast & Crew See All

Mncedisi Shabangu
Madoda
Sihle Xaba
Nhlanhla
Msimang Sibusiso
Nkulu

Awards

  • 2017 - AMAA - Best Original Soundtrack - winner
  • 2019 - Black Reel - Outstanding World Cinema Motion Picture - nominated
  • 2018 - SAFTA Golden Horn - Best Actor - Feature Film - nominated
  • 2018 - SAFTA Golden Horn - Best Supporting Actor - Feature Film - nominated

You May Also Like See All

Fanny and Alexander
Compensation
Lawrence of Arabia
Boyhood

Popular Movies See all movies

The Ten Commandments

3 hr 40 mins
The Egyptian Prince, Moses, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.
1956 Action & Adventure, Drama, Family, Documentary

Bastard Out of Carolina

1 hr 38 mins
Difficult tale of a poor, struggling South Carolina mother and daughter who each face painful choices with resolve and pride. Tired Anney and her daughter Bone grow both closer and farther apart as Anney sees Glen as her last chance despite his mistreatment of Bone.

Crucify

1 hr 19 mins
A neon noir thriller that descends into a maze of nightmares as two teens trapped in a haunted crime scene are forced to confront their demons.
2020 Fantasy, Horror, Suspense, Drama

Hamnet

2 hr 5 mins
From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, HAMNET tells the powerful love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
84   Metascore
2025 Documentary, Drama

Dhurandhar

3 hr 34 mins
Humza moves through the shadows of Karachi with the cold detachment of a man already dead. He targets the empire of Rehman Dakait; a titan of the underworld whose reach dictates the city's pulse. To climb this ladder, Humza performs acts of calculated brutality that buy him a seat at the table. He serves two masters while feeding intelligence to the authorities through a secret conduit. When a political mentor turns on Rehman, the veteran gangster finds himself hunted by the very state apparatus that birthed him. Humza pivots toward his defining vice of reckless over-extension to protect his target. This survival instinct secures his position but creates a vacuum that invites total national ruin.
2025 Action & Adventure, Suspense, Drama

The Passion of the Christ

2 hr 7 mins
A depiction of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The story opens in the Garden of Olives where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, the controversial Jesus - who has performed 'miracles' and has publicly announced that he is 'the Son of God' - is arrested and taken back within the city walls of Jerusalem. There, the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy; subsequently, his trial results with the leaders condemning him to his death. Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, the prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, for his sentencing. Pilate listens to the accusations leveled at Jesus by the Pharisees. Realizing that his own decision will cause him to become embroiled in a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in deciding the matter of how to persecute Jesus. However, Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who, in turn, gives the crowd a choice between which prisoner they would rather to see set free - Jesus, or Barabbas. The crowd chooses to have Barabbas set free. Thus, Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and is brutally flagellated. Bloody and unrecognizable, he is brought back before Pilate who, once again, presents him to the thirsty crowd - assuming they will see that Jesus has been punished enough. The crowd, however, is not satisfied. Thus, Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Whipped and weakened, Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, all the way up to Golgotha. There, more corporal cruelty takes place as Jesus is nailed to the cross-suffering, he hangs there, left to die. Initially, in his dazed suffering, Jesus is alarmed that he has been abandoned by God his father. He then beseeches God. At the moment of his death, nature itself over-turns.