Jewel

JEWEL (2022): THE LITTLE NETFLIX DRAMA THAT QUIETLY BLEW UP THE INTERNET

Love, Sharpeville and a whole lot of side‑eye — Netflix’s South African film Jewel didn’t just stir up feelings on screen. latestnetflix.com's view is that Off screen, critics torched it, fans dragged it, and real-life tragedy turned this small movie into an unexpectedly emotional time capsule.

Let’s dive into the tea.

Scandals & Controversies

“Worst lesbian movie I’ve ever watched” – and that’s just the headline

• LGBTQ+ site AfterEllen absolutely obliterated Jewel, calling it “by far the worst lesbian movie I’ve ever watched” and even a contender for the worst film they’d ever seen, full stop. - The review argues the interracial relationship between white photographer Tyra and Black local Siya is “fundamentally exploitative and dehumanizing to Black women,” accusing the film of dressing up entitlement and fetishization as romance. - Tyra’s behavior is described as creepy rather than cute: she allegedly keeps snapping photos of Siya without consent, turns Siya into a “muse” instead of a person, and even shows up at Siya’s house uninvited — twice. That’s not meet-cute, that’s “girl, get a restraining order.”

Romance or red flag parade? Critics can’t agree with Netflix

• While Netflix markets Jewel as a romantic drama about an unlikely love that crosses racial lines in the shadow of the Sharpeville massacre, critics have dragged the “romance” label as misleading. - AfterEllen points out the pair only know each other for about two days, arguing you can’t sell a grand love story out of what plays more like a fantasy projected by a privileged outsider. - Other reviewers call the film “contrived, over-ambitious and rushed” with powerful themes scattered by clumsy execution, even as they praise the cast and Sharpeville location work.

Critical Backlash & Fan Dragging

From “quiet reminder” to quietly roasted

• Afrocritik’s review is much kinder in tone but still notes that for a film about a traumatic historical event, Jewel “feels less audacious than it wants to be,” suggesting it never fully lands its big ideas about memory, race and forgiveness despite strong performances and atmospheric location shooting in Sharpeville itself.

Letterboxd savagery

• Over on Letterboxd, one prominent user review sums it up as “awful in almost every way,” slamming “jumbled up plotting,” “lackluster” characters and music that feels “amateurish and bland,” with cinematography swinging wildly “from somewhat impressive to god awful”. - The general vibe in user reviews: gorgeous concept, great actors, but the script needed way more polishing before anyone yelled “action.”

Reddit’s verdict: forgettable

• In South African movie discussion threads, Jewel gets name‑checked as another “bland, unoriginal and completely forgettable” local production when people rant about the state of the country’s film industry. - No full-blown Reddit conspiracy threads, but the consensus in comments leans heavily toward “nice try, but nah.”

Heartbreak Off Screen: Legends Lost

This is where the story around Jewel gets unexpectedly emotional.

Michelle Botes (Tyra) dies after cancer battle

• In December 2024, veteran actress Michelle Botes — who played Tyra Black, the foreign photographer whose arrival kicks off the entire plot — died at 62 after battling advanced multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer. - South African outlets described her as a “legendary actress” and highlighted her decades-long career on TV and film, with her final years including projects like Jewel and primetime dramas.

Connie Chiume (Mam’ Zikode) also passes away

• Just months earlier, in August 2024, beloved star Connie Chiume — who played Siya’s sharp-tongued, diabetic grandmother Mam’ Zikode — died at age 72. - Chiume was already internationally recognized thanks to Black Panther; her turn in Jewel was widely cited by reviewers as a highlight thanks to her “cracking wit and wise advice”‑style performance. - In touching social media tributes, fans shared photos and memories of both Botes and Chiume, explicitly mentioning their work together in Netflix’s Jewel, turning the film into an unintended memorial of two South African icons on screen together one last time.

Behind the Camera: The Director’s Bigger, Messier World

Adze Ugah – busy, booked, and orbiting controversy elsewhere

• Jewel is directed and co‑written by Nigerian-born filmmaker Adze Ugah, who shot the film on location in Sharpeville with a cast packed full of South African TV royalty. - Since Jewel, Ugah’s profile has only grown: he’s one of the major creative forces behind the historical epic Shaka iLembe and other high‑profile projects across Netflix and Amazon. - In a widely shared clip from a TV discussion, Ugah talks about how an earlier planned “American Shaka” project was going to feature gay storylines and male-on-male intimacy — content some viewers in the region strongly objected to, prompting celebrations online when that version was cancelled. - To be clear: this controversy is about another production, not Jewel, but it’s added fuel for people who already side‑eye how Jewel handles queerness and race.

Deep Cuts & Fan Theories

Is the romance actually… not real?

• While not a fully formed viral “theory,” fans and queer critics speculate—especially around the AfterEllen review—that Jewel plays less like an earnest love story and more like a white-savior fantasy Tyra projects onto Siya and the community. - The way the camera (and Tyra’s lens) constantly objectifies Siya, plus the rushed timeline and tragic violence, has led some viewers to treat the film as an unintentional horror story about power, entitlement and the white gaze rather than a sapphic love tale gone wrong.

Sharpeville as a character

• Multiple reviews note that the most compelling “character” in Jewel might actually be Sharpeville itself — the real-life massacre site where the film was shot. - That real‑world weight, combined with the later deaths of Botes and Chiume, has made fans newly revisit the film as a kind of haunted artifact: flawed, controversial, but historically and emotionally loaded.

Bottom Line:

No on‑set screaming matches. No cast hook‑ups splashed in tabloids. The drama around Jewel lives in three places: its brutal reception from queer critics, its reputation among South African viewers as a beautiful misfire, and the heartbreaking fact that two of its most iconic stars are now gone. For a small Netflix original, that’s a lot of baggage for one little Jewel to carry.